Across Europe’s rural landscapes, communities, cooperatives, and innovators are putting bio-based solutions into action—strengthening local economies, protecting the environment, and promoting circularity. As part of this movement, the BioRural project began by documenting eight real-life success stories—from Greece to the Netherlands—demonstrating how small-scale initiatives in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, bioenergy, and biomaterials are already delivering tangible results.
As the project evolved, more inspiring examples were identified by BioRural partners and added to the BioRural Toolkit, creating a growing repository of replicable and scalable solutions tailored to rural contexts. These success stories serve not only as proof of concept, but also as practical roadmaps for stakeholders looking to turn rural areas into sustainable bioeconomy hubs.
This blog post is part of a thematic series spotlighting selected cases by the bioeconomy sector. In this edition, we focus on bioenergy—showcasing how rural actors are harnessing locally available resources such as straw, wood residues, and agricultural by-products to generate renewable energy, reduce emissions, and achieve greater energy autonomy. These initiatives exemplify the role of bioenergy in building a resilient, low-carbon rural Europe.Let’s explore them below!
ENERGY COMMUNITY OF KARDITSA
Established in 2010 and transformed into an Energy Community in 2019, ESEK is a citizen-led cooperative promoting renewable energy in Thessaly, Greece. With over 400 members—including municipalities, SMEs, and associations—ESEK operates a biomass plant that processes local forestry and agricultural residues into solid biofuels, such as pellets, for heating and cooling. By leveraging the region’s rich biomass potential, ESEK supports a sustainable local value chain while countering reliance on fossil fuels.
1 village 1 MW – Local biomass for Bioenergy
The “1 Village 1 MW” initiative promotes energy self-sufficiency in rural Romania through community-based biomass heating systems. By utilising local green waste—such as pruning residues, forestry by-products, and cultivated energy crops—villages can produce their own biofuels and generate renewable heat. The model involves a full local value chain: biomass sourcing, logistics, boiler manufacturing, and connection of users, particularly public buildings. With over 200 small- and medium-scale biomass systems installed across 45+ villages (total capacity 30+ MW), the concept supports local jobs, environmental sustainability, and energy independence. The initiative is supported by the BioVillMap platform (www.biovillmap.ro), which showcases replicable rural bioenergy solutions.
Egg Energy Ltd
Egg Energy Ltd produces biogas from chicken manure via anaerobic digestion. The resulting biogas powers a 2 MW cogeneration plant, with electricity sold or used on-site. The thermal energy supports internal processes. The digestate is processed into OrganiQ organic fertilizers—liquid ammonium sulphate (6,000 m³/year) and granular fertilizer (10,000 t/year)—rich in nutrients and trace elements, enhancing soil fertility and promoting sustainable farming.
Alcarrás BioProductors – Cooperative composting and biogas production
Also in the Bioeconomy themes: food & agriculture and biomaterials
Alcarràs Biohub began in 2006 when 150 small pig and cattle farms in Alcarràs, Spain—an area with one of Europe’s highest livestock densities—joined forces to address the collective challenge of managing over 300,000 m³ of slurry and 250,000 tons of manure annually. Facing legal and environmental pressures, individual solutions proved unfeasible. Through collaboration between local farmers’ associations, they established a medium-scale composting and biogas plant, creating a foundational step toward a circular local biohub model, reducing environmental impact and management costs.
No waste from residual wood – A wood biorefinery around the gasification plant
In Italy, many gasification plants installed between 2013–2017 failed due to poor management and underutilized heat. One microenterprise, however, succeeded by applying a sawmill-like strategy to forestry residues. At its core is a gasification plant using sieved and dried woodchips. By optimizing wood use, the company produces energy, heating-grade chips, animal litter, firewood, and timber assortments from a small sawmill. Managed by three brothers, the enterprise closes the loop with local heating system installations, demonstrating how smart resource management can ensure small-scale bioeconomy success.
A singular spa hotel heated with local straw
Also in the Bioeconomy theme: food & agriculture
Aguas de los Mallos, a spa hotel founded by a local farming family in 2011, sought to reduce rising heating costs by adopting bioenergy. With abundant straw from their cereal farms, they initially installed a modified woodchip boiler in 2014, but technical issues caused unstable operation. In 2019, after partnering with ACR ECOCALDERAS, they successfully implemented a 200 kW automated straw boiler, ensuring reliable and cost-effective heating. This innovation helped the hotel maintain low energy costs during the 2020-2022 energy crisis. Their experience demonstrates the potential of agricultural biomass for sustainable rural tourism heating solutions.
Forest silviculture for fire prevention at ecotourism resort
Also in the Bioeconomy theme: forestry & natural habitat
Monte Holiday Ecoturismo (MHE) is an eco-tourism resort in the Sierra de Madrid, managing 27 hectares of Mediterranean forest. In 2018, manager and forest engineer Antonio Gonzalo initiated a self-protection plan, revealing extreme fuel accumulation (60–70 t/ha), well beyond safe thresholds. In collaboration with emergency services, he updated the forest management plan to include thinning for fire risk reduction. At the time, MHE’s district heating relied on commercial woodchips. Gonzalo proposed using low-grade biomass from forest thinning instead. A new boiler was installed in 2023 to accommodate this material. Initial operations focused on the resort’s perimeter, using local machinery to gather and process biomass into hog fuel. Though not cost-saving, the approach offsets fuel expenses and significantly enhances wildfire resilience.