Commercial, Finance, Industrial, Wind  -  September 14, 2017

Kimberly-Clark signs wind PPAs in Texas, Oklahoma

Kimberly-Clark Corp. on Sept. 14 announced its first major commitment to renewable energy with agreements to annually purchase about 245 MW of electricity from two new wind power projects in Texas and Oklahoma.

The renewable energy supplied by the wind farms is equivalent to about one-third of the electricity needs of Kimberly-Clark's North American manufacturing operations and will enable the company to surpass its greenhouse gas reduction goal four years earlier than anticipated, the Irving, Texas,-based company said in a news release. 

Kimberly Clark is purchasing the electricity through two seperate long-term power purchase agreements. Through the first, it will take 120 MW or 78% of electricity to be generated by the Rock Falls Wind project being developed by EDF Renewables in northern Oklahoma. Through the second, it will take 125 MW or 42% of the electricity to be generated by the Santa Rita Wind Energy Center being built by Invenergy in West Texas.

The renewable energy supplied by the two wind farms will enable Kimberly-Clark to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 550,000 metric tons annually. 

Global Head of Sustainability Lisa Morden said in a statement that the PPAs, combined with a number of other energy initiatives across the company, put Kimberly Clark on track to deliver "significant, multimillion dollar cost savings" from climate and energy projects by 2022. 

"These agreements mark Kimberly-Clark's first use of utility-scale renewable energy and are a step-change in our energy and climate strategy to reduce climate change impacts, improve operating efficiency and benefit cost savings," said Lisa Morden, global head of sustainability at Kimberly-Clark. "Adding wind-generated electricity to the energy mix will enable the company to achieve more than a 25 percent reduction in GHG emissions in 2018, which is four years ahead of the original 2022 target to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels."

Aside from the PPAs, Kimberly Clark has also recently announced its development of six large-scale electricity cogeneration facilities with waste heat recovery, including a seventh project recently announced and under construction at the company's Mobile, Ala., manufacturing facility that is scheduled to enter service in 2019; and four biomass thermal energy generating plants that provide stream for the company's tissue operations. 

Share this valuable information with your colleagues using the buttons below: