Fonterra’s Stirling manufacturing site is celebrating becoming the Co-op’s first manufacturing site in the South Island to get off coal and the first site to be running on 100% renewable thermal energy.
Moving to wood biomass means a reduction of 18,500 tonne of CO2 per year and the site’s electricity supply comes from hydroelectricity.
Fonterra Chief Operating Officer (acting) Anna Palairet says the Stirling site moving off coal is key to the Co-op reducing its emissions.
“Stirling moving to wood biomass is a crucial step for the Co-op to exit coal by 2037.
“Our collective efforts from on farm, across our operations and our R&D teams to reduce emissions, will help future proof Fonterra, supporting our ambition to be a long-term sustainable Co-op for generations to come.”
Stirling is known for its high-quality cheese and processes around 10,500 20kg blocks of cheese per day – that’s around 10 blocks per minute.
This is a $33 million project that has had local contractors engaged over the last two years with up to 50 contractors onsite per day working to get the boiler up and running and navigating a number of challenges due to COVID-19.
There were also significant economic benefits for the community – the installation has contributed around $10 million into the Otago/Southland region – and additional environmental benefits in wastewater, noise, solid waste to landfill and air discharge.
Fonterra is proud to partner with Wood Energy who provide the wood biomass.
Further details on the Co-op’s work to reduce emissions associated with manufacturing: