NIGERIA – Nigerian beverage companies are going green with Big Bottling Company (BBC) completing the installation of a solar power plant at its factory in Ogun State, while Nigerian Breweries has officially launched its Ibadan brewery solar power system.

The Big Bottling Company, producer of Big Cola, Big Orange, and other popular soft beverages in the country, has put up a 950kW solar system.

The power plant set up on the company’s factory rooftop was installed by Starsight Energy, the leading African Commercial and Industrial (“C&I”) solar power provider.

According to Starsight, this is its largest installation in the country to date and shows the potential of sustainable power for Nigerian industry.

The system is fully integrated into the plant’s existing natural gas power infrastructure, offsetting the customer’s gas consumption during peak solar production, thereby enabling the plant to reduce its gas usage.

It will help BBC offset 11,743 tons of CO2 over the project’s ten-year lifetime. These savings will help the company keep its commitment to protecting the environment.

BBC has put up a 950kW solar system while Nigerian Breweries has officially commissioned its 663.6kw solar plant

The installation is timely as the fast-growing beverage manufacturer is doubling the plant’s production rate which requires diversification of its energy supply.

“We were motivated to expand production at our primary Nigerian plant in a sustainable way and Starsight have delivered an excellent solution. Their system integrates into our existing power infrastructure and was designed, installed, and brought online in just five months.

“We look forward to generating green energy and reducing our carbon emissions, and we know we can rely on Starsight’s lifetime service guarantee,” Prahlad K. Gangadharan, CEO of Big Bottling Company, commented.

BBC is the bottling company for AJE, one of the largest global multinational beverage companies that is based in Lima, Peru.

The company has an installed capacity of about 3 million cases capacity a month, or 36 million cases a year, that is equivalent to about 18 million litres of liquid per annum.

It recently installed a new PET line with a capacity of up to 48,000 bottles per hour. The state-of-the-art facility comes with the InnoPET BloFill stretch blow molder/filler block that forms the heart of the line.

The stretch blow molder has been equipped with the AirBack Plus air recovery system, in order to meet BBC’s sustainability targets, that recycles the compressed air used in the stretch blow molding process, reuses some of it and in doing so reduces the amount of compressed air needed – thereby cutting the amount of energy consumed during compressed air generation by up to 36%.

Its volumetric Innofill PET DRV filler, with its very short setup times, gives the company the flexibility it needs and ensures extremely high line availability.

The line is further supplemented by various packaging and palletizing equipment that includes a labeler, packer and palletizer, among other machinery.

The Food Business Africa magazine featured Big Bottling Company in its latest magazine issue, giving you an insight on the company’s recent undertakings and investments in the vast beverage sector in Nigeria, where competition is stiff, and challenges abound. Click HERE to have a read.

Nigerian Breweries launches solar power plant

Meanwhile, Nigerian Breweries Plc has officially commissioned its 663.6kwP solar plant worth over N300 million (732,000) at its Ibadan brewery.

Installed by CrossBoundary Energy, a renewable energy company with a focus on providing funding for off-grid solutions for businesses in Africa, the solar plant will supply approximately 1, 000 megawatts per hour (mwh) to the brewery annually, at a significant discount to their current cost of power.

The landmark project which can approximately brew 13.3 million bottles of its Star Lager beer will reduce the site’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by over 10, 000 tonnes over the lifespan of the plant.

CrossBoundary Energy will operate the rooftop facility on behalf of Nigerian Breweries as part of a 15-year solar services agreement.

Under the agreement, Nigerian Breweries will only pay for solar power produced, receiving a single monthly bill that incorporates all maintenance, monitoring, insurance, and financing costs.

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