Ineos is continuing to work on driving down CO2 emissions from its operations in Belgium. Following the Norther deal announced in September with Engie, the company has today announced that it has agreed a long term power purchase agreement for renewable offshore wind power with RWE, under which renewable electricity will be directly supplied to Ineos’ Belgian sites.
In November, the company pledged to stay ahead of EU climate and energy targets at its businesses in Antwerp, Belgium. But next to its Antwerp site, Ineos also operates nine other sites in Belgium – in Lillo, Doel, Zandvliet, Geel, Tessenderlo, Jemeppe Sur Sambre, Feluy and Zwijndrecht – and a research laboratory in Neder-Over-Heembeek.
Under the terms of the ten-year deal, which begins in 2021, Ineos will purchase 56-Megawatt - 98 GWh per annum - of off-shore wind power from RWE Supply &Trading, around 25% of the renewable electricity produced at the Northwester2 wind park in the Belgian North Sea. It will reduce the carbon footprint of Ineos in Belgium by a further 745,000 tonnes of CO2 over the length of the contract.
Together, the Norther agreement and the present deal with RWE amount to a reduction in carbon emissions from Ineos’ operations by nearly 2 million tonnes of CO2 over the life of the contracts - the equivalent of taking more than 160,000 cars off the road each year.
The EU wants greenhouse gas emissions to be 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. For Ineos, the main focus will be on reducing emissions in the first place, rather than capturing and storing them, although the latter will remain an option: the company is also planning to optimise its existing carbon capture activity at Zwijndrecht.