Personal hygiene solutions provider Ontex has broken ground on a solar installation at its factory site in Ortona, Italy, which is claimed to be the largest in the country.
The new installation will have an annual electricity production capacity of 11.6 GWh, sufficient to power over 3,500 households.
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Menapy has developed and funded the new installation.
This company was also responsible for deploying solar power facilities at Ontex units in Eeklo, Belgium and Segovia, Spain.
Menapy Italia country manager Federico Dotto called the latest project a key milestone for the firm in Italy.
Dotto stated: “It crystallises our long-term experience in industrial rooftop and solar projects in Europe and it confirms that our ‘Solar as a Service’ can bring important added value to high-consuming industries in Italy.
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By GlobalData“Ontex has clear and ambitious goals in sustainability and saving on energy costs, and with this project we help them achieve both, without the investment.”
Construction is expected to complete in the first months of next year, with the production of personal hygiene products using solar power anticipated to begin in spring 2022.
Ontex executive vice president for R&D and Sustainability Annick De Poorter said: “As demand for sustainably produced electricity is expected to increase, we prefer to have direct access to electricity that is produced on-site in a sustainable way.
“We can now produce more than a quarter of the electricity we need to manufacture essential hygiene goods at our factory in Italy. This is another step towards our goal to have carbon neutral operations by 2030. We will reach this goal through on-site renewable energy production, energy savings, purchasing energy from renewable sources, and carbon offsets via reforestation projects.”
The firm’s factories in Italy as well as eight other European countries operate on 100% electricity from renewable sources.
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The new installation will have an annual electricity production capacity of 11.6 GWh. Credit: Ontex BV.
