McCain’s installing Australia’s largest renewable system

GENERATING renewable energy is the way forward for McCain Foods Ballarat plant.

The company announced construction has commenced on a renewable energy system predicted to reduce the site’s emissions by more than 27,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The 8.2-megawatt system plans to utilise a combination of technology including a 17,000 solar panel array and a cogeneration digester that takes biogas produced by food waste to generate energy.

Engineering project manager at McCain Foods Scott White said the works are cutting edge in combining solar with a bio digestant cogeneration component.

“Not only are we going to be producing energy from the sun but we’re going to take by product from our potato manufacturing facility and use that to create a fuel which will then be used to produce electricity in the plant,” he said.

The plan is set to be Australia’s largest behind-the-meter scheme in existence referring to its use of emerging technologies such as solar, energy cogeneration and electric vehicle charging spots.

Mr White said the project has been a long time in the making.

“There was a large feasibility study undertaken over 18 months,” he said.

“We realised, if you can build and develop a smart system that there are ways to do this easily to save the bottom line and improve the environment.”

The new system aims to reduce the site’s natural gas usage by 16 per cent and energy consumed from the grid by 39 per cent.

This is something Mr White said is part of the company’s long term environmental plan in sustaining communities, local economies and jobs.

“This project suits perfectly because it’s about having a sustainable energy source and reducing our site operational costs so therefore protecting jobs for the future and farmers and suppliers alike,” he said.

“The board and the family owned business is driven to reduce our CO2 emissions in all of our factories in 10 years.

“We’re already well down the path of completing feasibility studies for other plants around Australia and the globe as well.”