The news comes as CCEP switches on a new, eight hectare solar farm at Europe’s largest soft drinks factory in Wakefield.
The solar farm, which is the size of 12 football pitches, will produce up to 5MW of energy and will combine with a £1m combined heat & power (CHP) system at the site, which opened in 2014.
The CHP system saves around 1,500 tonnes of CO2 per year at Wakefield – a 5.6% reduction. Combined with the solar plant, Wakefield is now set to save 3,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent to taking over 1,700 cars off the road.
The solar farm is located 1.5 miles from the Wakefield site, but the two are connected via a series of underground cables. CCEP will get 15% of the factory’s total electricity from the farm, and the company has already committed to further investment in innovation such as CHP at its other UK sites, including at Sidcup in Kent.
“At CCEP we are committed to minimising the impact of our operations with a core goal to reduce the carbon footprint of the drink in the consumers’ hands by a third in time for 2020,” said Nick Brown, head of sustainability at CCEP. “By guaranteeing that 100% of the electricity we use comes from renewable sources we’re taking a major step forward in achieving this.”
