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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis says it has
agreed to source renewable energy generated by a new wind farm to power its
production operations at its manufacturing site in Stenungsund, Sweden, reported
Chemweek.
The company has signed a
purchase agreement with Finnish state-owned energy player Gasum to source power
for a period of 10 years from Sweden’s Stena Renewable, which owns and operates
the onshore Kronoberget wind farm, located around 250 kilometers from the
facilities at Stenungsund. Delivery of renewable electricity to Stenungsund
began on 1 January 2021, it says. The power purchase agreement is the fourth and
largest to date by Borealis, which says it aims to source half of its total
electricity consumption from renewable sources in major business areas by
2030.
Borealis estimates it will source 2,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) from
the wind farm over the 10-year period. The wind farm, commissioned in December
2019, generates a total output of approximately 200 GWh/year.
The
company says it aims to source 50% of its energy needs for its polyolefins and
hydrocarbon and energy business areas from renewable sources by 2030. The
renewable electricity generated within the framework of the agreement with Gasum
will reduce its indirect Scope 2 carbon dioxide emissions at Stenungsund by
approximately 10,000 metric tons/year, it says.
The Stenungsund site
features a flexible-feed, 625,000-metric tons/year steam cracker producing main
products ethylene and propylene, which are used to produce high-density
polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and Borstar PE
products.
As MRC wrote before,
Borealis began to restart of its 625,000-metric tons/year steam cracker at
Stenungsund, Sweden, in early January, 2021, but the declaration of force
majeure remained in place then. The process of restarted lasted for several
weeks. Force majeure at Stenungsund was declared after a fire started at the
cracker on 10 May last year. A restart of the cracker was initially planned for
the fourth quarter of 2020. The force majeure was lifted on 29 January,
2021.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene
(PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2%
year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density
polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to
the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the
formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers'
inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
Borealis is a leading provider of
innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and
fertilizers. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Borealis currently employs
around 6,500 and operates in over 120 countries. |
