Thermal solar power plant for sustainable malting

Sustainable energy: the Boortmalt malting plant at Issoudun, Kyotherm and ADEME in September 2021 officially announce the commissioning of the site’s solar thermal power plant, the largest facility of its kind supplying an industrial site in France.

 

First there was cogeneration and biomass, and now the Boortmalt malting plant in Issoudun can draw on solar thermal power for its heating needs. On 20 September 2021, the site inaugurated a solar thermal power plant covering an area of 14,252m2, third-party financed by Kyotherm with the support of ADEME. The facility generates 8.5GWh of sustainable, low-carbon heat per year, representing around 10% of the site’s needs.

 

This facility will make it possible to avoid the annual discharge of 2,100 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, or the annual equivalent of the emissions from 1,050 cars. Thanks to this new facility, 50% of the heat needed to run the malting plant now comes from sustainable sources. This proportion is destined to increase in the years to come.

 

“The Issoudun malting plant, the historical processing site for the cooperative’s malt activities, has played an essential role in our industrial development. Over the years, it has been able to keep pace with changing times and incorporate cutting-edge technology for increasingly sustainable malt production. Today, it perfectly embodies the dynamics of our forward momentum, as we aim to accelerate agricultural and food transition,” declares Jean-François Loiseau, Chairman of the Axereal Group. This large- scale facility is representative of the Axereal Group’s overall sustainable development strategy. “We aim to increase our profitability, in particular by focusing on the structuring of our channels. Environmentally friendly-production, high environmental value, low-carbon channels and new generation grain storage are all topics in which we are assuming a leading role, as well as in many other areas. Each step towards more sustainable production is a further step towards meeting the expectations of our customers, and ultimately of consumers,” says Paul-Yves L’Anthoën, Axereal Group CEO.

 

Producing malt in a sustainable way requires a daily commitment to continuous improvement. Reducing energy consumption and emissions is one of Boortmalt’s four main objectives for sustainable development, along with water conservation, sustainable agriculture, and health and safety issues. “Our goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 50% by 2030 across Boortmalt’s activities worldwide, in line with the Paris climate agreements,” states Yvan Schaepman, Boortmalt CEO (malting subsidiary of the Axereal group). For several years, Boortmalt has been investing in alternative energy sources to reduce its carbon emissions and limit its consumption of fossil fuels.