In South Africa, the factories of the French company Saint-Gobain will be partly powered by photovoltaic solar energy. This follows an agreement signed with CVE (Changeons notre vision de l'énergie), a renewable energy producer based in Marseille, France.
How can the carbon footprint of industrial sites be reduced? Saint-Gobain seems to have identified a solution in South Africa. The French manufacturer is betting on renewable energies, which are now all the rage in the rainbow nation. It has just signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the local subsidiary of its compatriot CVE (Changeons notre vision de l’énergie) for the supply of 140 GWh of electricity per year.
This clean energy will power Saint-Gobain’s operations at the Brakpan, Alrode and Germiston sites in Gauteng province, as well as at Parrow in the Western Cape. The 20-year contract will cover 40% of the electricity needs of Saint-Gobain’s facilities.
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The partnership with CVE “is essential to enable Saint-Gobain to meet its commitment to reduce its scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by 33% by 2030 compared to 2017, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” explains Othman Benjelloun-Touimi, Saint-Gobain’s managing director in Africa. Overall, the solar power plants to be built by CVE will reduce Saint-Gobain’s emissions by 6,800 tonnes a year.
The renewable energy supplier is particularly active in the agricultural and industrial sectors, with operations in the provinces of Gauteng, the Western Cape and on the east coast of South Africa. CVE claims a capacity of 639 MW under construction and development in the rainbow nation.
Jean Marie Takouleu
