The solar farm has an installed capacity of 60 megawatts (MW) of renewable power. Image by MartinLisner via iStock
Vinyl producer INEOS Inovyn and its partners PerPetum Energy and Green4Power have launched a new state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar farm in Belgium, which supplies renewable power exclusively to the Jemeppe production site.
The solar farm has an installed capacity of 60 megawatts (MW) of renewable power, which reduces annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 14,000 metric tons, INEOS said in a news release. The farm features over 90,000 solar panels and is the equivalent size of 56 football pitches.
The solar project includes a range of innovative features, from the use of latest-generation heterojunction panels that provide higher levels of efficiency, to an underground power line connection with Jemeppe's plant and central inverters, which are more reliable, economical and durable, according to the release.
Philippe Taranti, INEOS Inovyn Director at the Jemeppe site, said, "I am very proud of reaching this milestone, which forms part of our strategic decarbonization roadmap to reduce CO2 emissions across all sites by more than 33 percent by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050. The new solar farm also enables us to provide customers with low carbon products that will support Europe's green transition".
Cécile Neven, Minister for Energy and the Air-Climate Plan, said, "I can only support this strategic investment as part of the energy transition. I'm delighted to be taking part in the launch of this ambitious project to build the largest photovoltaic park in Wallonia. This project is much more than an investment in sustainable infrastructure. It embodies the determination of INEOS Inovyn, a key player in the chemical industry, to do everything possible to achieve our climate objectives".
"It also demonstrates the success of cooperation between the private sector and public authorities to achieve common goals in sustainable development. By mobilizing everyone, we can achieve ambitious goals together," Neven added.
In order to comply with 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets, INEOS Inovyn said it "continues providing industry leadership, putting in place long-term structural solutions to drive a sustainable step change in the carbon footprint abatement of the PVC [polyvinyl chloride] value chain".
INEOS Inovyn describes itself as Europe's leading producer of vinyls and claims it is a top three producer worldwide. Its portfolio consists of an extensive range of class-leading products, with an annual commercial production volume of around 9 million metric tons.
PerPetum Energy is a Belgian family company founded 17 years ago and headquartered in Gent. The company covers the development, construction, financing, and maintenance of projects aimed at decarbonizing large consumers through an optimized combination of solutions, such as photovoltaics, wind power, and energy storage.
Earlier in the month, INEOS announced that the flagship carbon storage project of Denmark, Project Greensand, has progressed with the completion of the final report from its pilot phase. The company is the lead project partner.
Project Greensand was created by a consortium of 23 Danish and international partners. The project aims to develop, test and demonstrate safe and efficient storage of CO2 in the North Sea subsurface.
Project Greensand "demonstrates that captured CO2 can be transported across borders and stored offshore to mitigate climate change," INEOS said in an earlier news release.
INEOS said it has applied for approval for Denmark's first large-scale CO2 storage facility and is aiming to start CO2 storage in the North Sea by the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, on behalf of license partners Wintershall Dea (now Harbour Energy) and Nordsøfonden. The company is targeting to store up to 400,000 metric tons of CO2 to be stored per year, with up to 8 million metric tons of CO2 per year in the area stored under the North Sea's seabed beginning in 2030.