Nestlé SA announced it is investing in Ganado, a solar project owned and developed by Enel North America in Jackson County, Texas, just down the coast from Houston. The deal, value of which was not specified, should indirectly help power many of Nestlé's U.S. facilities, advancing the company’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its operations.
With Nestlé's investment, the project, which is the size of about 850 football fields, will add 208 megawatts of solar electricity to the U.S. power grid. In addition to its direct investment, Nestlé will purchase 100% of the renewable electricity attributes generated by the project's energy production.
That's estimated to be an average of 333,000 megawatt hours per year for 15 years. The annual carbon emission reduction is expected to be about 126,294 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to the emissions of more than 27,200 cars per year.
"We will continue to accelerate the use of renewable electricity, including wind and solar, to source 100% renewable electricity across our sites globally by 2025, and to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050," said Howard Baker, global head of engineering service and technologies at Nestlé.
Kate Short, chief procurement officer of Nestlé North America, added, “Not only will our investment in Ganado help reduce carbon emissions across our U.S. manufacturing sites, but we're also proud that it will help expand the availability of renewable energy in the U.S., adding enough solar electricity to power about 24,574 homes each year."
