HEINEKEN’S NEW SUSTAINABLE PLANT IN MANCHESTER
Heineken UK (formerly Scottish & Newcastle UK), the UK’s leading beer and cider business, announced the launch of its new biomass plant at Royal Brewery in Manchester.
Heineken UK’s investment in this biomass plant, as well as a second biomass plant at its John Smith’s Brewery in Tadcaster is approximately £35 million, (£17.5 million for each plant) making it one of the largest single investments in renewable technology by a non-utility company in the UK.
Lord Davies of Oldham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will officially launch the plant at Royal Brewery with a key address. He will be joined by Heineken UK’s Managing Director Stefan Orlowski and Biomass Plant Operations Manager, Gary Harvey, as well as Senior Sector Development Manager for Biomass at Envirolink Northwest, Nigel Blandford.
Construction on the biomass plants started in 2007 and they have been fully operational since October this year. The plants will burn locally sourced wood chip initially to generate steam and electricity, with the ability to fit equipment to burn spent grain at a later date. They have each been designed to produce 37,000 MWh of electrical energy per year, which is enough to supply all of the site’s power requirements, and any excess energy produced will be sold back to the National Grid.
The Manchester and Tadcaster biomass plants will together reduce carbon emissions by 30,000 tonnes per annum (15,000 tonnes per annum each) which is the equivalent to taking 21,650 cars off the road per year or saving the carbon emissions from 5000 homes per year.
Heineken UK’s Managing Director, Stefan Orlowski said:
‘The launch of our biomass plant at Royal Brewery is a key milestone in Heineken UK’s commitment to mitigating the impact of climate change. Our new plant both here in Manchester and in Tadcaster will significantly reduce carbon emissions and provide us with renewable energy generated and used on site.
‘Our investment in these plants builds on an already strong environmental record and we have recognised energy and climate change as a critical business issue for several years, reducing our carbon emissions by 14% since 2004. We have many effective initiatives in place – we’ve been working with the Carbon Trust on carbon footprinting and labelling, we will
be planting approximately 400,000 new apple trees in our contract growers’ orchards in Herefordshire between 2009 and 2011, and we are working hard to help our pub lessees reduce their energy usage. We are continuously looking for more ways to further improve our environmental record to build a sustainable future for our business.’
Hugh Jones, Director of Solutions at the Carbon Trust, said:
‘It seems appropriate to launch this project as we approach the crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen. Businesses must take the lead in using energy more wisely and efficiently, and I am very encouraged to see Heineken UK making such a significant financial and strategic commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. The Carbon Trust worked with the company on this project when it was first proposed a few years ago and we are delighted to see it come to fruition. We hope Heineken UK’s example will encourage other companies to explore lower carbon ways to operate their business.’
In terms of what the new biomass plant in Manchester means for the region, Nigel Blandford, Senior Sector Development Manager for Biomass at Envirolink Northwest said,
‘England’s Northwest boasts the best biomass fuel supply chain in the UK, therefore establishing a biomass energy plant in this region has clear advantages for Heineken UK. Envirolink Northwest has assisted Heineken UK since the inception of the project and we will continue to support the company through the North West Biomass Project, which receives its
finance from North West Regional Development Agency and the Northwest Energy Council.’
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