Gas Natural Fenosa inaugurated a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) station in Motilla del Palancar (Cuenca) on 16th December, bringing the number of stations for this type of fuel in Spain to 16, making it the country with a claimed fourth most LNG stations in the world. The station, which has a 60 cubic metre tank, can supply LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG), using a dual-purpose refuelling hose.
The infrastructure can refuel 10,000 lorries that use LNG and 40,000 light vehicles that use CNG every year.
Boasting a privileged location on the A-3 Motorway, which links Madrid and Valencia, the station is ideal for supplying long-haul transport fleets. It can also supply municipal waste collection vehicles and fleets of buses.
The Motilla del Palancar station is one of the seven that have been built in Spain within the European GARneT project (Gas as an Alternative for Road Transport), led by Gas Natural Fenosa. The stations, installed along the main transport corridors, supply liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas to vehicles that use these fuels.
Gas Natural Fenosa has 36 public and private stations in Spain, with a supply capacity of 1,003 GWh/year. These stations serve most of the more than 3,700 vehicles that use this fuel in Spain, which are primarily buses, waste collection lorries, taxis and company fleet vehicles.
The use of compressed natural gas as a fuel for transport contributes to improved air quality, given that it reduces oxide and nitrogen emissions and suspended particles, the main pollutants that affect human health, by more than 85%, and decreases CO2 emissions, the main cause of the greenhouse gas effect, by up to 20%. Natural gas also reduces noise pollution, because a natural gas engine produces 50% less noise than a conventional engine.
Natural gas is a very competitive fuel from an economic point of view when compared with diesel and petrol, given that it can achieve savings of up to 30% with respect to the former and 50% with respect to the latter.
Spain now has 21 provinces with public natural gas supply stations including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia.
(Source: Gas Natural Fenosa)
