DENMARK – Arla has entered into a 10-year power purchase agreement with a leading Danish developer and operator of wind, solar and hybrid projects, Eurowind Energy that will come into effect on 1 January 2025.
Arla’s environmental target was presented in January and with the purchase agreement with Eurowind Energy, the dairy giant hopes this partnership will help it reach its target of 100 percent green electricity for dairy plants and production in Denmark by 2025.
The electricity will come from an unsubsidized wind farm called Nørre Økse Sø, in Jammerbugt Municipality, which aims to deliver 137 GW/h of electricity as of November 2024, when it will start to be operational.
This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 34,000 Danish households, the Hobro-based constructer, and operator of wind, solar, and hybrid energy parks.
According to the decade-long agreement, the green energy from the turbines should provide an annual saving of 58,000 tonnes of CO2, which corresponds to eight percent of Arla’s total CO2 footprint.
Hanne Søndergaard, Sustainability Director at Arla commented:” Every day, we work on fulfilling our climate goals – both in terms of production and among our owners. This involves being able to produce all our products with green electricity.”
The new agreement is therefore an important milestone in our climate work. And I am proud that there already now is clarity about the path to deliver on this ambition.”
Arla’s efforts to transition to renewable energy are also evident in its energy harvesting from solar cells, biogas engines, and own units from Arla farms throughout Denmark.
Overall, through various initiatives, Arla has reduced its CO2 emissions from production by 25 percent since 2015.
Øndergaard noted that Arla is fully committed to reducing its climate footprint so that consumers can continue to enjoy their dairy products.
She explained that the company has doubled its ambitions across production and now has a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 63 percent before 2030 and reaching a target of 100 percent green electricity in Denmark is a good step on the way,
In January, Arla Foods also partnered with the renewable energy company Better Energy on four new solar parks in Denmark by 2024.
The parks have an expected capacity of 250 GWh, corresponding to the annual energy consumption of 156,000 average Danish citizens, and enough to cover about one-third of Arla Foods’ electricity consumption.
The first solar park is expected to start delivering electricity by early 2023, and all four are scheduled to supply electricity by early 2024.
Better Energy is responsible for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the solar parks, which take up a total of 280 hectares of land.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE.
