Belgium – Covestro will be covering almost half of its future electricity demand in Belgium from wind energy. The company concluded a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Engie. From April 1, 2021, the energy provider is going to supply around 45 percent of the electricity demand of Covestro in Antwerp from 15 wind turbines in four newly constructed onshore wind farms.
The new agreement, known as a Corporate PPA, covers a capacity of 39 megawatts. This reduces Covestro’s carbon footprint in Belgium by more than 38,500 metric tons of CO₂
Production in the chemical industry is traditionally energy-intensive. Covestro sees this as an incentive to take responsibility and minimize both energy demand and CO2 emissions from production plants and processes.
Halve carbon emissions
With its various innovative process technologies and a licensed energy management system Covestro has already significantly increased energy efficiency and reduced emissions from its production. The company has set itself the goal to halve its specific carbon dioxide emissions by 2025 compared to 2005. In addition and in line with its new vision, Covestro wants to obtain most of the remaining energy from wind power.
Georg Wagner, Managing Director at Covestro in Antwerp. ‘Wind energy, together with the use of sustainable raw materials and innovative recycling technologies, are important steps towards realizing our vision of becoming fully circular and achieving the climate goals of the European Green Deal.’
Ørsted
Covestro already signed a major industrial customer supply contract with energy provider Ørsted to cover a significant proportion of the electricity requirements of the German sites for a long-time period as from 2025. The current contract with Engie will make Antwerp the first Covestro production site powered almost half by wind energy.
