For Immediate Release
May 9, 2024 2:00 pm ET
Renewable Thermal Collaborative’s Quarterly Update on Industrial Decarbonization
New Members, New Research, New Projects in Q1 2024
Washington, D.C. – The Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC), the only global coalition focused exclusively on the decarbonization of thermal energy with renewable solutions, today shared its Quarterly Update on Industrial Decarbonization (QUID) for the first quarter of 2024. Highlights include: five new Members and nine new Solutions Providers joined the Collaborative; the Collaborative released two new research publications; the Collaborative conducted two events; Collaborative Members and Solutions Providers announced six new projects, and projects sponsored by nine Collaborative participants were selected for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). These highlights represent some, but not all, of the progress being made towards the RTC objective of accelerating the pace of industrial decarbonization to meet critical climate targets.
“Our growing base of participants demonstrates the growing interest in working collaboratively to tackle the previously neglected challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy used for heating and cooling,” remarked Blaine Collison, RTC Executive Director. “Effectively addressing industrial decarbonization requires collaboration and the new RTC Members and Solutions Providers who are joining the Collaborative will help boost our efforts to foster solutions designed to address industry challenges.”
Highlights of the first quarter of 2024 include the following:
1) Five New Members and Nine New Solutions Providers
With the addition of the following companies last quarter, the RTC includes 44 Members and 51 Solutions Providers in the United States and around the world. Members include global industrial and institutional energy buyers representing more than $6 trillion in market capitalization across a diverse range of industries, including chemical, food and beverage, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals. Solutions Providers are technology companies, advisors, developers, and others working to accelerate the renewable thermal market.
New Members (https://www.renewablethermal.org/our-members/)
Campbell’s Soup Company is a global leader in the food and beverage sector with a longstanding commitment to the communities they call home and the environment. They are committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 42% and Scope 3 GHG emissions 25% by fiscal year 2030.
International Paper is a global producer of sustainable packaging, pulp, and other fiber- based products, and one of the world’s largest recyclers. As part of their Vision 2030 goal to reduce their climate impact, International Paper is committed to reducing their Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions by 35%.
The Kraft Heinz Company is a global leader in the food and beverage sector. With a goal to reach net-zero by 2050, The Kraft Heinz Company is working to reduce energy use intensity by 15% across their manufacturing facilities by 2025.
New Belgium Brewing is an American craft brewer based in Fort Collins, Colo. They produce America’s first certified carbon neutral beer and are committed to being carbon neutral by 2030.
Target is a United States-based multicategory retailer with stores in all 50 states. As part of its “Target Forward” strategy, they are committed to reaching net-zero by 2040.
New Solutions Providers (https://www.renewablethermal.org/our-solutions-providers/)
Engie North America is an energy solutions company that provides customers carbon-neutral strategies and supports their renewable energy transition. They manage the entire lifecycle of renewable energy transition projects, from development to financing, construction, procurement, and operations. Engie North America is part of the ENGIE Group, a global leader in low-carbon energy and services with 96,000 employees worldwide.
Forbes-Marshall is a leading provider of energy conservation and automation solutions for the process industry. They specialize in products and services for steam efficiency, process optimization, control, and monitoring.
Lumenion develops thermal energy storage systems that store wind and solar energy as heat and supply industrial process heat up to 400°C. The technology offers a competitive solution to decarbonize industrial or district heat demand, and ensures a stable supply of renewable energy around the clock.
Piller Blowers & Compressors is a manufacturer of high-performance blowers and compressors for the process industry. They deliver efficient and economical solutions to customers from many industries, including food, pulp and paper production, chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and wastewater treatment.
PurposeEnergy is a United States-based renewable fuels and biogas specialist focused on waste solutions for the food and beverage industries. They develop, own, and operate projects that convert organic waste streams to biogas for use in industrial processes, conversion to renewable electricity, or refinement to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG).
Solaray Corporation is the parent company of SunEarth Inc. and AET Solar, which together are the largest domestic manufacturers of solar thermal systems in the United States. It also includes several other companies involved in the distribution and manufacturing of renewable energy and high efficiency equipment for residential and commercial applications.
Turboden, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group company, is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and maintenance of Organic Rankine Cycle systems. Their expertise lies in heat transfer, high temperatures, turbomachinery design, and natural refrigerant working fluids.
Veolia North America designs and deploys solutions for the management of water, waste, and energy, including water and wastewater treatment, commercial and hazardous waste collection and disposal, energy consulting, and resource recovery. They help commercial, industrial, healthcare, higher education, and municipality customers throughout North America.
Verse is the developer of AriaTM, a proprietary Software as a Service platform that uses generative AI to ensure companies can quickly, easily, and cost-effectively transition to clean power. Aria empowers companies to set parameters and target specific clean power goals such as annual matching, carbon matching, or hourly matching.
2) Four New Publications and Events
The RTC collaborates with its Members and Solutions Providers to actively evaluate technologies and advocate for policies that can help accelerate significant decarbonization. The RTC focuses on the full-range of renewable energy technologies across all industrial, commercial, and institutional applications. The Collaborative released two new research publications and convened two events in the first quarter of 2024:
Publications (https://www.renewablethermal.org/category/publications/)
Case Study: AstraZeneca and Vanguard Renewables U.S. RNG Agreement: This case study details the groundbreaking renewable natural gas (RNG) agreement between RTC Member AstraZeneca and RTC Solutions Provider Vanguard Renewables. It provides an in-depth look at one of the largest business-to-business RNG purchases in the North American voluntary market, which will supply AstraZeneca with 650,000 MMBtu/year for 15+ years and contribute to the company’s ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its global operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 98% by 2026.
Electrification Action Plan: The RTC lays out an ambitious, multi-year strategy to address barriers to industrial electrification. It provides a vision for the priority market, policy, and community actions that will drive the RTC towards its goal of a 30% reduction in U.S. industrial thermal emissions by 2030 and full sector decarbonization by 2050. The action plan describes how accelerating electrification will require new federal and state policies as well as tactical tools, trainings, and convenings to support market development.
Electrifying American Manufacturing: Opportunity, Scale, and Barriers: To initiate a conversation between industry and utility regulators on the implications of widescale industrial electrification, the Regulatory Assistance Project and the RTC hosted an in-person breakfast featuring a panel discussion at the NARUC winter meeting in Washington, D.C. in February with industry leaders and industrial decarbonization experts.
Partnership Workshops, Winter 2024: The RTC held virtual Partnership Workshops consisting of curated, one-to-one networking between RTC Members and Solutions Providers. The workshops allowed RTC Members to discuss their decarbonization goals and collaboration opportunities with RTC Solutions Providers.
3) Six New Member & Solutions Provider Projects
The RTC is the only place where large thermal energy users come together collaboratively with innovative solutions providers to understand the problems in the market, learn from each other, and overcome the barriers to renewable heating and cooling. The following projects by RTC Members and Solutions Providers further demonstrate continued engagement in expanding industrial decarbonization projects and programs worldwide:
Member Projects
Saint-Gobain North America: RTC Member Saint-Gobain North America received a $400,000 award from the U.S. DOE to integrate concentrating solar thermal power into its manufacturing process at its CertainTeed asphalt roofing manufacturing facility in Shakopee, MN. The project will deploy Solarflux parabolic dish concentrators in a solar thermal concentrator array (STCA) to provide heat to the plant’s thermal oil loop. By demonstrating the potential of this technology, the project will help address the cost and complexity barriers to deploying industrial solar thermal systems.
Solutions Provider Projects
Bioenergy Devco: RTC Solutions Provider Bioenergy Devco will construct a state-of-the-art organics recycling facility for City of Long Beach that will process up to 314,000 tons of organic material annually into renewable natural gas and soil amendments. The project will avoid 47,545 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year.
Brenmiller Energy: RTC Solutions Provider Brenmiller Energy signed an agreement with SolWinHy Cádiz to develop a groundbreaking green e-methanol project in Spain. The project will produce over 29,000 tons of green e-methanol annually, a clean alternative to fossil fuels for heavy-duty applications. The incorporation of Brenmiller’s bGen thermal storage unit will boost the project’s efficiency by using its 55 MWh of energy storage capacity to turn 54 MW of wind and 165 MWp of solar energy into reliable, clean steam.
GEA: RTC Solutions Provider GEA will equip Nestlé’s new Nunspeet milk powder plant in the Netherlands with a cutting-edge heat recovery system to slash steam use by 75%. Supported by a subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the project will install two heat pumps later this year. One will use waste heat from the spray drying process and other operations to provide 80°C hot water for milk preparation. The second will produce 85°C water for the entire production line and dehydration processes, as well as cold 1.5°C water for air-conditioning.
GEA will also provide two industrial heat pumps for a groundbreaking district heating project in Lemgo, Germany. The project will upgrade the city’s district heating system to use 80% renewable energy. One heat pump recovers waste heat from a combined heat and power plant and the other extracts heat from wastewater treatment plants. GEA’s equipment provides the district heating system with 100⁰C heat to warm the town’s historic buildings year-round, decreasing the need for fossil fuels and saving 3,200 tons of CO2 every year.
Rondo Energy: RTC Solutions Provider Rondo Energy announced a partnership with energy giant EDP to bring around-the-clock renewable heat to industrial customers in Europe. Beginning in 2025, the two companies will offer contracts that combine Rondo’s innovative thermal battery technology with EDP’s vast wind and solar resources to make a drop-in solution to replace industrial boilers. The batteries will store energy produced by either decentralized solar projects or long-term contracts from EDP and deliver it as high-temperature heat on-demand. EDP plans to develop up to 400 MW of wind and solar projects to power up to 4 GWh of thermal storage from Rondo.
4) Nine Participants Selected for DOE Project Funding
Nine RTC Members and Solutions Providers had projects selected for funding as part of the U.S. Government’s Industrial Demonstrations Program at the DOE. These projects, which included awards totaling $1.084 billion, will advance several renewable thermal solutions critical to reaching corporate and national net-zero emissions goals. RTC Members receiving funding included Diageo, Eastman, International Paper, The Kraft Heinz Company, and Unilever. RTC Solutions Providers receiving funding included Antora Energy, Electrified Thermal Solutions, Rondo Energy, and Skyven Technologies. Learn more about these awards on the RTC blog here.
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About the Renewable Thermal Collaborative
The Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC) is a global coalition of companies, institutions and governments committed to decarbonizing their operations by scaling up renewable heating and cooling technologies at their facilities. The RTC collaborates with its Members and Solutions Providers to accelerate industrial decarbonization by addressing and identifying ways to overcome the technology, policy and market challenges that large thermal energy users face. Learn more at www.renewablethermal.org.