ethanol Stations in spain in

The inclusion of Switzerland in the European E85 Group, in which Spain is not yet represented, has led both the Spanish Bioethanol Association (BIO-e) and the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA Biocarburantes) to call for incentives and regulatory measures to allow the introduction of E85 in our country.

It is clear that the measure adopted on 1 January 2020 is insufficient. On that date, the safeguard gasoline obligation expired, which limited the bioethanol blend in Spanish service stations to five percent. Only 95 E5 petrol was allowed to be dispensed. Thanks to this change in the law, it is now possible to increase this blend to 10% and fill up with E10.

The ministry merely reminds that "from 1 January 2020, changes will be made to the law that will allow companies to decide for themselves which fuels to offer at their filling stations." As there is no E10 fuel at petrol stations, they confirm that they have enabled a section on their portal "where citizens will have access to all the information related to this change, the differences between the two types of petrol E5 and E10 and which vehicles can fill up with E10". They also recall that they are promoting "the use of biofuels with a view to achieving 9.5% and 10% penetration in the transport sector by 2021 and 2022".

José Ramón Freire, Executive Director of BIO-e, recalls that "faced with the need to accelerate decarbonisation, European countries are focusing not only on policies to change the consumer car fleet, but also on fuel decarbonisation policies that allow them to be applied to the existing fleet in the first place and preserve the European automotive sector, which is highly dependent on internal combustion engines". He adds that "unfortunately, in Spain this sensitivity has not yet been implemented, E5 is still being distributed at our service stations and the taxes on bioethanol are higher than those on petrol, which prevents large distribution companies from switching to higher blends such as E10, let alone E85".

In Spain there are currently 5 service stations offering Bioethanol e85 or e100.