In what is being earmarked as one of the country’s largest integrated behind the meter solar and battery installations, The Arnott’s Group will transition its Huntingwood manufacturing site to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2029.
Arnott’s is working with renewable energy specialists CleanPeak Energy to complete the project.
Huntingwood is 44,000 square metres and runs 24-hours a day, seven days a week. It has five automated manufacturing lines and produces just over half the group’s total biscuit volume – around 56 million kilograms of biscuits every year – including Tim Tams, Shapes, and Jatz.
CleanPeak will install a 4.1 MW rooftop solar system which will operate alongside a 15 MWh battery energy storage system, generating more than 5.25 GWh of renewable electricity. CleanPeak will then source an additional 17.3 GWh of mixed renewable and non-renewable electricity required for the site, progressively moving to renewable electricity from 2023, and reaching 100 per cent by 2029.
The rooftop of the multi-building facility will house around 10,000 panels and be connected to inverters and a battery energy storage system. The integrated solar and battery assets will operate to smooth the solar output each day in-order-to match the energy usage of the site.
From 1 January 2023, Clean Peak will become the energy retailer for the Huntingwood manufacturing site. They will then commence installation of the onsite solar system, as part of stage 1 of the project. Stage 2 of the project will involve the battery storage asset which will be operational in the 2nd half of 2023.
The onsite solar system will supply around 23 per cent of the site’s electricity needs, with the remaining coming from a mix of renewable and non-renewable sources, and progressively from CleanPeak’s renewable projects due to be operational from 2023.
CleanPeak will also build a 1.3MW rooftop solar asset at Arnott’s Virginia site in Queensland.
Arnott’s started working on its transition strategy with energy consultancy World Kinect Energy Services more than 12 months ago.
CleanPeak was selected to deliver an onsite solution and complement this with a multi- year in-front-of-meter energy offer that will allow the site to transition to 100 per cent renewable electricity operations in a cost-effective manner.
CleanPeak’s capital investment will give Arnott’s certainty over the site’s electricity costs for the next seven years.
Building works will begin in the coming months, with the installation due to be fully operational by the end of 2023. The project will be delivered without interrupting the production facility’s operating schedule and will be connected to the site’s HV switchboards.
Arnott’s Group chief transformation officer Simon Lowden said, “This agreement allows us to make significant progress towards achieving the group net-zero targets we’ve set ourselves.
“It offers greater certainty over our electricity prices, is affordable and efficient, and is just one of the tools we’re investing in to get to meet our net zero commitment.
“We are also investing in large scale energy monitoring trials and working with our suppliers to better understand their emission profiles.”
