the environmentalist gives a round up of environment management news from companies including Ecotricity, Heineken and Kingspan Insulation.
Energy company Ecotricity and construction business Skanska have launched a joint venture to build onshore wind farms in Britain. The partnership, called Skylark, will aim to put 350MW of new energy projects into the planning system in the first five years, representing a potential investment of £500 million should the projects all receive consent.
The world’s largest cruise business, Carnival, has announced that by the end of the year it will have saved more than 4.5 billion litres and reduced carbon emissions by 12 billion kilogrammes since 2007, when the firm introduced its fleet fuel conservation programme. The initiative combines energy-saving initiatives onboard existing ships with the launch of more energy-efficient vessels. Carnival says fuel efficiency has improved by 24% since 2007, saving it around $2.5 billion in fuel costs.
Kingspan Insulation has unveiled the UK’s largest rooftop solar renovation project at its manufacturing plant in Selby. Photovoltaic (PV) panels cover more than 15,000 m2 of the roof space and the array is expected to generate 2.14 GWh of electricity a year. The system was installed as part of a wider programme of energy-efficiency measures to make Kingspan Insulation a net zero-energy business by 2020. Other measures include a new energy-efficient roof and an LED lighting upgrade, which, together with the PV array, will save 79.2GWh at the site over 25 years.
Heineken has installed 4,000 solar PV panels on the roof of the John Smith brewery in Tadcaster. The panels can generate more than 876MWh a year, which is equivalent to about 5% of the brewery’s total annual electricity consumption. The array was designed and installed by specialists SolarAccess.
The Ford Motor Company is to install LED lighting at its manufacturing plants around the world. Some 25,000 new LED fixtures will replace traditional high-intensity discharge and fluorescent lights, and are expected to reduce Ford’s energy use at the sites by 56 million kWh each year, and reduce annual energy costs by $7 million. Installation of the LEDs will cost about £25 million.
