Heineken to power Spanish breweries with solar energy
A new solar photovoltaic plant – dedicated to Heineken’s energy requirements - will be constructed in the southern Spanish town of Andévalo, creating around 200 jobs.
Becoming operational later this year, the plant will guarantee the supply of green electricity to all four Heineken Spain breweries as well as its offices - the equivalent of over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, or the annual emissions produced by nearly 25,000 homes.
Heineken Spain has set a goal for its operations to be 100% carbon neutral by 2023.
From Spain to Austria
Located in the municipality of Puebla de Guzmán (Huelva), the new solar plant will have a surface area of 150 hectares, the equivalent of 210 football fields. The project will have an installed capacity of 50MW and will generate 82 GWh/yr. It will be built inside the biggest in-land wind farm in continental Europe, El Andévalo (292 MW), developed and managed by Iberdrola since 2010.
“Thanks to the Andévalo plant, all our drinks will be brewed using electricity created directly from the sun,” said Guillaume Duverdier, Managing Director, Heineken Spain. “This initiative reaffirms our commitment to sustainability, as well as our industry leadership position in the drive to towards renewable energy usage in Spain.
“After covering all our breweries’ electrical requirements, we will be replacing our existing gas boilers with ones that use biomass in order to be able to brew beer using only renewable energy by 2023.”
Heineken has 29 renewable energy projects currently under way around the world: focusing on harnessing the power of wind and solar energy, biomass or biogas. In addition, it has carbon neutral breweries in Göss and Schladming (Austria), on-site biomass installations in Sampang Agung (Indonesia), on-site solar installation in Kudenda (Nigeria), and four off-site PPAs to power multiple breweries and shops in Mexico.
Heineken’s global sustainability strategy aims to grow its share of renewable thermal energy and electricity in production globally to at least 70% by 2030.
