Nestlé UK signed a corporate power purchase agreement for 31 megawatts of output from the Race Bank wind farm off the North Norfolk coast. The deal is expected to cover half of the food and beverage subsidiary’s power consumption.
Starting on May 1, 2020, Race Bank wind farm will provide 125 gigawatt hours to Nestlé UK under the terms of a new 15-year indexed fixed-price agreement with Ørsted. Race Bank opened in June 2018 with the capacity to generate 573 MW from 91 Siemens Gamesa 6-MW wind turbines.
The other 50% of the company’s power already comes from an onshore wind farm at Sanquhar in Scotland. Power from both that facility and Race Bank are supplied to Nestlé UK through electricity partner EDF. With the signing of this latest agreement, all of Nestlé UK’s consumption is now covered by renewable PPAs.
In September, parent company Nestlé, the world’s largest food and drink company, committed to reaching zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. One of the three main parts of the strategy to get there is 100% renewable electricity in factories, warehouses, logistics, and offices. At that point last fall, a third of the company’s total factories were already running entirely on renewables.
Wind power is one of several ways that Nestlé UK is generating its own renewable energy. The subsidiary reported using more than 4,000 solar panels at their factories in Fawdon and Tutbury. In 2018, their factory in Buxton got 30% of its electricity from hydropower, and the Nescafé factory in Tutbury generates energy from waste coffee grounds leftover from the coffee-making process.
