Trinseo (Berwyn, Pa.) celebrated the completion of a solar panel installation project at its latex binders manufacturing facility in Hamina, Finland, which became operational on June 12. A key project of the company’s decarbonization strategy to help meet its 2030 Sustainability Goals, the facility partnered with Finnish electricity supplier Helen Oy for a 10-year energy consumption commitment for the installation of 1,800 solar panel modules.
The new solar panels are expected to offset the site’s power consumption by approximately 20% annually, which aligns to Trinseo’s climate change goal to increase its share of electricity from non-fossil sources from 5% to 30% by 2030. The company’s decarbonization strategy is focused on achieving carbon excellence, implementing renewable energy, and exploring clean power electrification to help achieve this climate change goal.
“Our decarbonization strategy is critical to achieving our climate change goal. The implementation of solar energy at our Hamina facility is the first result of our ongoing work,” said Francesca Reverberi, Senior Vice President, Engineered Materials and Chief Sustainability Officer. “This project helps us progress along our sustainability journey, and we are eager to see a reduction in our Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions at the facility.”
With this installation, the company estimates that over 122,000 kg of carbon dioxide emissions (or about 20%) will be offset from the facility each year (Source: Trinseo)
The solar panels, which are housed onsite at the facility, are just the first step in Trinseo’s decarbonization strategy for managing Scope 2 emissions, which helps the company reduce its use of renewable energy certificates. While green energy certificates offset the facilities Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, implementing renewable energy supplies will help the site reduce its fossil-based energy consumption. The solar panels will also help the facility reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 122,878 kg per year.
The solar installation was a result of site-level energy assessments that are being conducted at each of the company’s global facilities. To date, this is the third renewable energy supply installation at Trinseo. In addition to the Finland facility, other installations that help offset Trinseo’s energy consumption include solar panels at the Terneuzen, the Netherlands, site, as well as a windmill at the Tessenderlo, Belgium, facility. The company anticipates more physical renewable energy projects to follow at other European facilities in the coming years.
“The solar installation at the Hamina facility will help the site reduce emissions in the production of latex binders,” said Ake Zondervan, Global Energy Procurement Manager. “As we explore new ways to switch from compensating our emissions to eliminating them, projects like this will be essential.”