After the daily reporting on AES Engineering’s #29millionby29 environmental pledge in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference, we’ve been taking a pause in order to get up on the roof at Mill Close and down to work elsewhere in our global operations.
It has been great to see the solar panels going up at the Rotherham global headquarters. This is a visible sign of progress that is also inspiring other parts of the group, in the US, India, Germany, Spain, China and Australia among others.
Over the next few weeks we will be reporting on the environmental measures at some of these operations but for now I would like to share a quick overview starting with the UK.
A trial bore hole for a ground source heat pump at Mill Close has been completed with positive results and further design work is now underway. Investigations are continuing on the environmental benefits of a water borehole.
Work is continuing on the new ‘Factory of the Future’ on the adjoining site, which will include an estimated £3 million of environmental-related costs. The ‘Tree Walk’ environmental education and recreation project also continues to take shape with an extended path, new fencing, a pond platform, outdoor classroom and picnic area now complete.
Solar panels, battery storage, voltage optimisation and electric vehicle charging points are being installed in multiple sites . We will take a closer look at some of these installations in a later report and also review our electric vehicle initiative.
The data needed to calculate Net Zero requirements for the whole group has now been gathered for the group’s major global operations. Requirements for the remaining sites will be calculated on the basis of the sample data acquired from these detailed investigations.
In broad terms, we have found that the price to set up a solar farm in Texas capable of generating enough power to offset 2,500 tonnes of CO2e would cost somewhere between $12M to $15M and generate around 12.5 GWh.
In summary, we are moving as fast as practical arrangements, and planning allow. Let’s hope it is fast enough for the planet.
Follow the journey and keep up to speed with the updates in our Betterworld.Solutions magazine and the #29millionby29 campaign on Chris Rea’s LinkedIn.
