Beer giant, South African Breweries sign waste-to-energy PPA with Bio2Watt
Source: renewafrica.biz
By: Nigel Lungi
Deal align with SAB’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s sustainability targets to have 100% of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2025.
South Africa’s leading alcohol and beverages brewing company, South African Breweries (SAB), has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Black-Woman Owned industrial scale biogas waste-to-energy company, Bio2Watt, for the supply of biogas produced renewable energy.
Bio2Watt will build a biogas waste-to-energy plant with a power generation potential of 4,8MW from its Cape Dairy project located at Vyvlei Dairy farm in Malmesbury in the Western Cape. The plant will make use of manure collected from 7000 cows on the dairy farm and mix it with other wastes from the surrounding region to produce renewable electricity.
The procurement of renewable energy by SAB is in line with its holding company Anheuser-Busch InBev’s 2025 sustainability targets to have 100% of its electricity come from renewable sources, and reduce carbon emissions by 25% across its value chain.
“We have made a global commitment to explore renewables to reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% contracted renewable electricity by 2025. We also believe we have a duty to ease the pressure on the national grid. Through this partnership, we are proud to progress on both fronts as we make our way to a cleaner, greener and more self-sustainable future,” said SAB Procurement Director for Africa, Kyle Day.
Renewables meet 23% of SAB’s power needs
All of SAB’s Breweries in South Africa already use solar power to supplement some of their power needs. SAB’s Alrode brewery in Johannesburg is also making use of a biogas waste-to-energy facility to produce electricity.
Commenting on the PPA signing, SAB’s VP of Procurement and Sustainability in Africa, Conor Ruff said; “Under this Power Purchase Agreement and installed renewable electricity, SAB will achieve 23% contracted renewable electricity.”
“As we accelerate our sustainability strategy, we are looking forward to collaborating with more partners in the renewable energy space,” added Ruff.
The latest biogas-to-energy energy project adds to Bio2Watt’s portfolio of renewable energy projects in South Africa that produce electricity from cow manure. The company currently owns and operates the first commercially viable biogas project in South Africa, the 4,6MW Bronkhorstspruit Biogas Plant which supplies electricity to BMW’s Rosslyn car assembly plant in Pretoria.