31-10-2024

Cepsa, a pioneering supplier of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the Canary Islands

Cepsa is now supplying sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the Canary Islands. The energy company has made SAF permanently available at the North Tenerife and Gran Canaria airports, and in the coming weeks it will be expanding this availability to the archipelago’s other main airports. This type of biofuel achieves a reduction of aircraft emissions by up to 90% throughout its entire life cycle, compared to conventional kerosene.

These Canary Islands airports have now been added to the five other major Spanish airports where Cepsa is supplying this sustainable fuel: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, and Seville.

According to Álvaro Macarro, Cepsa’s Director of Sustainable Aviation, "we’re making progress towards our goal of decarbonising the aviation sector, while also implementing our firm commitment to supplying the Canary Islands with energy that produces low levels of CO₂ emissions. We’re proud to be doing our part to help improve the sustainability of this region’s aviation and tourism sectors.” Cepsa is one of the primary producers and suppliers of aviation fuels in the Spanish market. At its La Rábida Energy Park near the city of Huelva, it produces this sustainable fuel from used cooking oils, as a way of promoting the circular economy.

In addition, to guarantee the supply of SAF to its customers, in February Cepsa began the construction of the largest second-generation biofuels plant in southern Europe, together with Bio-Oils, based on an investment of €1.2 billion. This facility, which will go into operation in 2026 in Palos de la Frontera near Huelva, will have a flexible production capacity of 500,000 metric tons of SAF and renewable diesel. With this project, the company is making further progress towards its objective of becoming the top producer of 2G biofuels in Spain and Portugal, with an annual production capacity of 2.5 million metric tons of biofuels, of which 800,000 metric tons will be from SAF, an amount sufficient to allow flight around the planet 2,000 times.

This new step that Cepsa has taken in the Canary Islands is supporting several of the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations 2030 Agenda, including SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and SDG 13 (Climate action).