Bekaert signs 12-year solar PPA for Sardinia plant

Steel wire and coating technologies firm Bekaert and Edison Next, the Edison Group company supporting customers with ecological transition and decarbonisation, have signed a 12-year on-site Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). This PPA will see the installation of a photovoltaic system with a total power of 6.1 MW at Bekaert’s plant in Sardinia, Italy. The 6.1 MW solar installation will be capable of meeting more than 20 per cent of the plant’s current energy requirements.

Edison Next will finance, develop and manage the installation, which will be operative in 2025.Covering an area of about 23 000 square metres, this system will produce over 11.2 GWh a year and reduce annual emissions of about 3,000 tonnes of CO₂, an amount Bekaert comments is the equivalent of the annual consumption of more than 4,000 households. Bekaert Sardinia expects to self-consume 93 per cent of the renewable electricity generated.

Accelerating sustainability ambitions

“This state-of-the-art solar project at Bekaert’s Sardinia plant incorporates trackers that follow the path of the sun to optimise renewable energy production,” says Michael Hamilton, vice president of Bekaert’s Procurement Commodities Category. “It will accelerate our sustainability ambitions as well as make us less dependent on energy price inflation. Since opening the solar plant in Burgos, Spain last year this marks a next milestone to achieve the goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 46.2 per cent by 2030.”

“We are proud to be able to contribute to the sustainability goals of Bekaert, one of the Italian, European and global leaders in the steel sector,” adds Marco Steardo, industry director of Edison Next. “The development of this large photovoltaic system in fact marks an important step in the decarbonisation path of Bekaert Sardinia and the Bekaert Group in general towards their ambition of net zero by 2050. Photovoltaic is a mature technology that, backed by the PPA formula, represents a primary fundamental element for energy transition by companies.”

Bekaert acquired the tyre cord plant in Sardinia from Bridgestone in 2010.