Identification

Abengoa is an international company that applies innovative technology solutions for sustainability in the energy and environment sectors, generating energy from the sun, producing biofuels, desalinating sea water and recycling industrial waste.

Basic information

Our business is organized into three different activities:

Engineering and construction

Engineering and construction includes our traditional engineering activities in the energy and water sectors, with more than 70 years of experience in the market. We specialize in carrying out complex turn-key projects for solar-thermal plants, solar-gas hybrid plants, conventional generation plants, biofuels plants and water infrastructures, as well as large-scale desalination plants and transmission lines, among others.

Concession-type infrastructures

We have an extensive and young portfolio of proprietary concession assets that generate revenues that are governed by long term sales agreements with formats such as take-or-pay contracts, tariff contracts or power purchase agreements (PPAs). This activity includes the operation of electric (solar, cogeneration or wind) energy generation plants and transmission lines. These assets generate no demand risk and we focus on operating them as efficiently as possible.

Producción industrial

The latter covers involving our businesses with a high technological component, such as biofuels, industrial waste recycling or the development of solar technology. The company holds an important leadership position in these activities in the geographical markets in which it operates.

 

Consolidation method

Inventory consolidation is performed based on company operational control. The consolidation scope taken in tu account, has been included in Appendix A of this document.

Inventory calculation methodology

Abengoa has developed an internal standard where methodologies for calculating the following sources are developed:

• Scope 1 (Direct emissions sources):
  • Stationary combustion sources
  • Mobile combustion sources
  • CO₂ emissions in metal recovery processes
  • Emissions of CO₂ from the bioethanol production process
  • Emissions from the composting process
  • Emissions from the decomposition of organic matter in landfills.
  • Process emissions from wastewater treatment plants
  • Fugitive emissions of natural gas
  • Fugitive emissions of HFC from refrigeration systems
  • Fugitive emissions of SF6 from electrical equipment
  • Emissions of HFC/PFC from the use of solvents (not aerosols)
  • Emissions of HFC/PFC from the use of aerosols
  • Emissions of HFC/PFC from the use of foam blowing agents
  • CO₂ emissions derived from the use of lubricants
  • CO₂ emissions derived from the use of paraphinic waxes.
  • Diffuse emissions derived from the use of greenhouse gases
     
• Scope 2 (indirect emissions):
  • Emissions associated with generating purchased thermal energy.
  • Emissions associated with generating purchased electrical energy.
     
• Scope 3 (other indirect emissions):
  • Business trips.
  • Employee commuting to the workplace.
  • Indirect emissions from losses during electricity transport and distribution.
  • Indirect emissions due to the value chain of the fuels employed for the production of the electricity consumed.
  • Goods and services purchased. 

 

Abengoa companies have excluded from their inventories those sources which imply a value less than or equal to 0,5 % of their total emissions.

Different sources have been employed as references for developing these methodologies: GHG Protocol tools, IPCC guidelines, National Inventories reports to UNFCCC, among other bibliographical information.

Most cases, the methodology used has been built on the general equation of:

Where the activity data is a representative parameter of the activity degree to which the emissions are associated with and the emission factor is made up by a statistic value or obtained by analytical data of the substances used during the activity. The most extended example is the combustion emissions calculation, where the activity data is the fuel consumption (in energy terms, for example) and the emission factor is a value obtained by stoichiometric data from the combustion reaction, expressed in emissions per energetic consumption. 

Other specific methodologies have been developed, such as:

Emissions in metal recovery processes: CO₂ emissions are calculated by a balance of matter, from the difference of carbon content in the process input flows and the carbon content in output flows. Flow rates measurements and carbon content analysis are involved in these calculations. 

The emissions related to the use of biomass, which are counted separately come from the use of biomass as fuel and as a raw material in the bioethanol process.

Biogenic CO₂ emissions from bioethanol production process: Bioethanol production must be controlled, and stoichiometric relationship between ethanol and CO₂ production is applied for the calculations. It is supposed that per 46 kg of pure ethanol is produced; 44 kg of CO₂ is emitted.

Emissions from refrigeration systems: In this case, the amount of gas recharged due to maintenance activities is supposed to be emitted to the atmosphere.

Business trips: The travel expenses tools are integrated with the corporate GHG tool, allowing the automatic GHG calculation basing on the distance and transport means of each trip carried out by the staff. Emission factors employed have been taken from sources such as DEFRA, IPCC guidelines and GHG Protocol.

Employee commuting to the workplace: Employee surveys are launched in a yearly basis, obtaining the distances and transport means used by the staff in their displacement to/from the workplace. The emission factors used in this calculation are obtained from sources such as DEFRA, IPCC guidelines and GHG Protocol.

Indirect emissions from losses during electricity transport and distribution: Using the information published in statements such as the International Electricity Agency or the electric agencies of the countries where Abengoa works, ratios of the electricity grid distribution losses have been obtained. It has been assumed that the final consumption in our Companies must be increased due to these losses, so emissions are also increased.

Indirect emissions due to the value chain of the fuels employed for the production of the electricity consumed: Using country electricity mixes and bibliographic data related to the emissions generated during the fuels value chain, emission ratios have been estimated for the extraction, processing and transport of the fuels used for the electric energy production.

Goods and services purchased: Abengoa has included in all purchasing conditions the obligation for the providers to report the emission associated to the service and product there are providing, including their upstream emissions and covering at least the most important stage of the product life cycle assessment. A detailed validation of the information provided by the supplier is carried out, using life cycle analysis data bases for a wide range of products.

Greenhouse gases taken into consideration

Los gases de efecto invernadero considerados en el inventario son los definidos en el Protocolo de Kyoto:

• Carbon dioxide.
• Methane.
• Nitrous oxide.
• Perfluorocarbons.
• Hydrofluorocarbons.
• Sulphur hexafluoride.

Base year

Abengoa’s inventory is the result of consolidating the inventories of its companies and each one of them define their own base year depending on their characteristics and, in this way, the perimeter variations are carried out at a subsidiary company level.

Uncertainty and base year

The uncertainty associated with the values of the emissions reported in this report is determined by the individual uncertainties of each one of the parameters employed in calculation thereof (activity data, emissions factors, and others).

Generally speaking, the activity data used in Abengoa’s GHG Emissions Inventory estimation correspond to data subject to metrological control regulations, which ensures a high degree of accuracy, or are taken from the company’s own meters subject to calibration and verification programs.

The emission factors used to carry out the Abengoa’s GHG inventory are extracted from specific official sources for each source category. Selection of these emission factors is geared towards minimizing this uncertainty as far as possible. Unless clear evidence exists otherwise, probability density functions are assumed to follow a normal distribution.

A maximum level of relative significance has been set at 5% with respect to the emissions total, with the exception of facilities subject to regulatory verification, in which case the level is to be set at either 2 % or 5 % in accordance with the requirements of Decision 2007/589/EC.

Abengoa has an internal system in place to estimate data reliability based on assigning quality indexes to each one of the parameters involved in emissions calculation. Based on the range of possible alternatives for determining each one of the factors involved in the methodologies for quantifying emissions, increasing quality indexes (on a decimal basis) are assigned to the most trustworthy options.

Subsequent statistical treatment of the individual quality indexes enables a single measurement of the reliability of the result to be obtained, which can in turn be compared to the value obtained for previous years, proving improvements made to the Abengoa’s GHG Inventory.