Coca-Cola European Partners is now powering its largest bottling factory in Europe through a combination of a solar power purchase agreement (PPA), on-site generation and a renewables tariff.
The soft drinks factory in Wakefield has been connected to a 5MW solar farm around 1.5 miles away which is now supplying 15% of the site’s total electricity demand.
The solar farm was completed in Q1 this year by developers Athos Solar and will maintain dual-use, with sheep being allowed to graze.
The long-term PPA complements existing generation assets at the Wakefield plant, which includes a combined heat and power plant and rooftop solar panels.
CCEP sources all of its remaining electricity demand via a renewables tariff from utility EDF Energy, ensuring that the plant – and all of CCEP’s manufacturing output in Great Britain – is powered entirely by renewables.
Trevor Newman, operations director at CCEP, Wakefield, said: “We’re proud to be a local company making one of the most recognisable brands in the world in a sustainable way here in Wakefield, working together with a number of local groups and businesses to achieve this.”
