• CEREALTO will install more than 12,000 solar panels on the roof and surrounding floors of its main Spanish factories.
• The company will cover more than 70% of its electricity needs with the output of the photovoltaic system.
• It will eliminate the emission of more than 24,000t of CO2 into the atmosphere thanks to the consumption of renewable energies, the equivalent of the emissions of more than 10,000 homes.

Venta de Baños, 23rd March 2023. CEREALTO, a leading company in the agri-food sector in the development and manufacture of cereal-derived products, reinforces its environmental commitment with its Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Plan. The comprehensive plan includes the implementation of three benchmark projects in the sector: self-consumption through solar panels, electricity supply through local photovoltaic sources and energy monitoring.

The implementation starts this March with the installation of solar panels in all its factories in Spain to promote self-consumption throughout the production chain, covering more than 70% of electricity needs. This will reduce costs and improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the business.

This photovoltaic project involves the installation of more than 12,000 panels on the roofs of the Venta de Baños, Toro and Aguilar de Campoo production centres, through a long-term renewable energy sale and purchase agreement. This will mean an installed power of 7 MWp, for a total production of 8.7 GWh/year, which means an estimated reduction of 24,435 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 97,743 trees planted. In a second phase, also planned to start this year, new ground installations will be undertaken.

Javier Leal, Cerealto's Operations Director, explains that "Cerealto's main objective is to reduce a total of more than 24,000t of CO2 eq/year, the equivalent to the emissions of more than 10,000 homes, if we add up all the energy efficiency projects. This means notably reducing the energy impact derived from our industrial activity in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the European Union in support of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030".

The Plan also includes the reinforcement of the commitment to renewable energy supply - which has already begun with the supply of biogas in excess of 20 GWh/year, equivalent to 2,760 TeqCO2 - with a long-term clean energy purchase and sale agreement that guarantees 50% of the electricity supply from renewable sources over the next few years.

In this new phase, Cerealto is also studying the extension of the energy monitoring system that has just completed the test phase carried out at the Toro factory, as well as the study of two other thermal generation projects using solar energy (7.5 GWh planned, 1,035 TeqCO2) and the installation of biomass boilers in order to further diversify fuels.

The renewable solution, a benchmark in the cereal agri-food industry, shows the way for the decarbonisation of this sector, as well as the rest of the industries that are intensive in the use of electrical energy, which currently comes from the use of fossil fuels.