Engie starts building 30-MW CSP plant for Heineken Spain

Energy solutions provider Engie Espana said on Monday it had started building a 30-MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant for Heineken NV (AMS:HEIA) in Seville, Spain.

The EUR-20-million (USD 19.7m) project will result in a self-consumption scheme that will produce thermal energy for Heineken’s beer factory, enabling the brewer to reduce fossil gas consumption by over 60%. Earlier this year, Engie Espana signed a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract with Heineken Espana to deliver the plant, which it will manage and maintain for 20 years.

The facility will be located on Heineken’s factory grounds in Seville where Engie will put up 43,000 square metres (462.848 sq ft) of mirrors. The solar field will occupy some eight hectares (19.8 acres), equivalent to eight football pitches, Engie Espana said.

The system will also have storage in eight 100-cubic-metre (3,531 cu ft) tanks to allow for heat production for five to six hours at times when there is no solar radiation.

Heineken will use to plant to produce superheated water for the brewing process. The facility will generate 28,700 MWh of thermal energy per year, and enable the beer maker to double the production capacity of superheated water for factory consumption, according to Engie Espana.

The project represents the first time in Spain that a thermal energy self-consumption setup is installed on a large scale in an industrial setting, the press release reads.

Construction works on the CSP plant will be finalised in June 2023.

The whole effort is part of the goal that Heineken’s Spanish unit adopted to achieve net-zero emission production by 2025, five years ahead of the parent group’s 2030 target. Among other initiatives, the brewer procured solar PV power from a plant in southern Spain and is obtaining thermal energy from biomass for its factory in Jaen.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 0.986)

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