The first initiative is being carried out in partnership with Solairedirect, a producer of PV electricity, and the OFI Asset Management firm within the framework of its private asset management activities.
It involves installing 12,000 square metres of PV panels on the Rhodia Belle-Etoile site in Saint-Fons and Feyzin, in the Rhône region of France. Old warehouse roofs will be removed, and replaced with new roofs with the solar panels incorporated with them, the company said in a written statement.
Work on the project is scheduled to start later this month, with the solar array expected to be up and running by the end of 2011.
Boasting a 2 MW peak capacity, the solar power generating facility will produce 2 million kilowatt-hours per year, the company’s statement continued, pointing out that this corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of a town of 2,000 inhabitants, and will enable Rhodia to avoid releasing 1,000 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
“We are particularly happy to enter into this innovative partnership with Solairedirect that will allow Rhodia to reduce its carbon footprint still further,” said Philippe Rosier, President of Rhodia Energy Services.
On an entirely different front – and a different continent – Rhodia yesterday signed an agreement to develop its first bagasse-based biomass project with Paraiso, a privately-held company in Brotas City, Brazil.
Under the agreement, Rhodia Energy Services will upgrade and operate a cogeneration unit at a plant Paraiso uses to produce ethanol and sugar from sugar cane, and use biomass provided by its Brazilian partner as a raw material to produce electricity.
Most of the electricity generated by the cogeneration unit will be sold to the grid, while the Paraiso site will also be supplied with electricity and steam by the new unit.
The unit will have an installed capacity of 70 MW, and will produce electricity that could feed a city of approximately 200,000 homes.
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