Innovative for Climate
6. Green electricity
6.GREEN ELECTRICITY
RENEWABLE ENERGY ARKEMA PURCHASES...
AND PRODUCES!
As a contributor to the transition to new energies, the Group is taking action on every front to decarbonize energy purchasing and support green electricity producers.
On July 3, 2019, Corsica Sole, a photovoltaic electricity producer, commissioned a 10 MWp solar energy plant covering about 25 acres on Arkema’s production site in Saint-Aubain in the south of France. This solar plant represented an investment of €13 million and will produce 19 GWh of energy each year, mainly to be consumed by the factory. “This flagship project demonstrates the feasibility of green electricity on industrial sites, where it does not compete with farmland,” explains Loïc de Bergh, Head of Energy at Arkema, which has announced several other similar projects in France.
Purchasing contracts in the pipeline
As well as on-site production projects, the Group is working on various fronts to support green energy producers and offer its clients assurances required by their own CSR policies. For example, Arkema has obtained strong commitments from Apple. Energy purchase certificates allow it to state that all electricity consumed in manufacturing Apple branded products in China, France and the US comes from renewable sources. The Group is also working on green power purchase agreements with producers – “especially in the US, and later in China, where the electricity mix is dominated by fossil fuels,” Loïc de Bergh continues. For a manufacturer like Arkema, these types of contracts are possible due to the improving performance of technologies, including solar energy, for which the MWh price is a quarter of the cost from a decade ago.