Fonterra has continued to progress with its decarbonisation work, announcing another site transitioning from coal and installing a heat pump and solar thermal system.
The cooperative will convert its coal boilers at its Hautapu site to wood pellets and install a heat pump at its Palmerston North milk processing site that supplies the local market. Both projects have recieved support from the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) Process Heat Contestable Fund.
Fonterra Chief Operating Officer Fraser Whineray stated the cooperative is commercially focused on reducing emissions.
“We’re using several solutions to decarbonise our operations, and these two projects are a good example of different technologies available,” shared Whineray.
Once complete in early 2024, the Hautapu site will reduce our carbon emissions by a forecast of 15,785 tonnes per annum, the equivalent of taking about 6,500 cars off New Zealand’s roads.
The heat pump at the Palmerston North site will convert wasted heat from the refrigeration system into a heat source. This will reduce the amount of natural gas needed to process heat. The site will also generate additional heat via a solar thermal plant.
“This GIDI co-funding will help the Cooperative progress two emission reduction projects ahead of time. It will help us progress towards reducing emissions by 30 percent across all our manufacturing operations by 2030. On the way to net zero by 2050, and transition out of coal by 2037.”.
Fonterra is receiving up to 2.5 million NZD in co-funding to complete the work at Hautapu and 425,000 NZD for the Palmerston North site project.
These projects are just two of many underways to decarbonise the Fonterra business, such as the Waitoa and Stirling sites installing wood biomass boilers to transition out of coal.
The Stirling wood biomass boiler will fire up for the first time today, marking the next step on the site’s transition to reliant on renewable energy for its process heat. Changing to this boiler will reduce the annual carbon emissions by 18,500 tonnes – the equivalent of taking approximately 7,700 cars off New Zealand’s roads.
The new Waitoa wood biomass boiler, due to be operational in November 2023, will reduce the site’s annual carbon emissions by approximately 48,000 tonnes, the equivalent of taking about 20,000 cars off New Zealand’s roads.
