SABIC’s polycarbonate facility in Cartagena, Spain, is set to become the world’s first large-scale chemical production site to be run entirely on renewable power, following the signing of a major agreement with Iberdrola, a world-scale electric utility company.
SABIC’s polycarbonate facility in Cartagena, Spain,
Iberdrola will invest almost €70m to construct a 100MW solar photovoltaic (PV) facility with 263,000 panels, on land owned by SABIC, making it the largest industrial renewable power plant in Europe. The plant is expected to be fully operational in 2024 and will help SABIC reach its 2025 clean energy targets.
The 25-year deal represents another milestone in SABIC’s journey to transition all its global operations to cleaner energy. SABIC’s ambition is to have 4GW of either wind or solar energy installed for its sites globally by 2025, rising to 12GW by 2030. In 2019, solar panels were installed at SABIC sites in India and Thailand, helping reduce greenhouse emissions by 200 tons, and SABIC’s Home of Innovation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has been completely solar-powered since 2015.
Plans are also underway to install PV technology at SABIC’s global HQ in Riyadh, and a final-stage feasibility study with Marafiq and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu is underway to explore a $300m, 300-megawatt solar array project on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. Once complete, SABIC will take the electricity generated by the plant and deliver it to local chemicals manufacturing plants.