ABB has achieved carbon neutral operations at its factory in Porvoo, Finland, reducing CO2 emissions by 636 tons in its first year. This saving is equivalent to driving 112 times the length of the equator or warming an electric sauna every day for 373 years. By combining digital solutions, electrification, and renewable technologies the Porvoo factory has taken an important step towards a more sustainable value chain.
The 6,600 square meter site producing wiring accessories and installation materials for the smart buildings market in the Nordics now utilizes 100 percent renewable energy. By using recycled plastic as a raw material the carbon footprint has been reduced by a further 106 tons a year. On-site electric vehicle (EV) charging for employees and visitors are also charged with renewable energy.
With no use of fossil fuels at all, Porvoo becomes the latest ABB facility worldwide to achieve carbon neutral operations to-date using state-of-the-art technologies from ABB and its partners, through the ongoing Mission to Zero™ program. Mission to Zero provides the blueprint for ABB’s journey to carbon neutrality, both for its own sites and those of its customers. As well as helping global emission targets, the program helps to assure better air quality and biodiversity in communities.
“With one-fifth of the world’s carbon emissions coming from the manufacturing and production sectors1, digitalization of buildings through connected technologies and building automation has a key role to play in helping to manage grid reliability, power consumption and operational costs,” said Marko Utriainen, ABB Local Product Group Manager, Finland at ABB Electrification’s Smart Buildings division. “Accurate information is vital to sustainability initiatives, so our ABB BE Sustainable with Active Energy solution that tracks utilities in real-time and analyzes usage and emissions levels, was installed to help the facility manager understand the carbon footprint of the site and manage energy consumption, emissions and costs.”
The Porvoo site recycles energy from its factory production, featuring both a geothermal system and solar technology to utilize heat from air compressors and heat recovery from the cooling networks serving the plastic machinery. This is achieved by installing rotary screw compressor that extract the heat that would otherwise dissipate into the atmosphere. Retrofitting the facility at Porvoo enabled it to decrease its total energy consumption by 21% using heat recuperation from production, seasonal thermal energy storage, a heat pump and free-standing solar photo voltaic technologies.
