Acciona to Supply 173 GWh Renewable Electricity to Vidrala in Portugal

Acciona has signed a contract with Vidrala to supply renewable electricity to its 2 glass container plants in Portugal, for an estimated capacity of 173 GWh

Acciona has signed a contract with the Vidrala group to supply electricity of renewable origin in 2020 to its two glass container plants in Portugal, for an estimated volume of over 173 gigawatt-hours (GWh).

The energy supplied to Vidrala will be used to cover the electricity consumption of the Gallo Vidro and SB Vidros plants that the company – which has its head office in Llodio (Álava, Spain) – and operates in the Portuguese town of Marinha Grande. All the electricity supplied will be 100 percent renewable, avoiding the emission of around 60,000 tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere during the contract period.

“We are grateful for the trust that Vidrala, a company we have supplied since July 2018, has placed in Acciona by increasing the level of energy contracted. We are also very pleased to contribute to our client’s sustainability objectives, reducing its carbon footprint” said Santiago Gómez Ramos, Director of Energy Management in Acciona.

The operation strengthens the firms’ supplies of renewable energy to corporate clients in Portugal, which began in 2015. It is estimated that the total renewable energy supplied to large clients in the country by the company will reach 850 GWh at the end of 2019, an increase of 40 percent over the previous year. Among the clients it supplies – or has supplied – in the Portuguese market are corporations such as Repsol Polímeros, Roca, Hutchison, Salvesen and Volkswagen Autoeuropa.

In Portugal, a country integrated (together with Spain) in the Iberian Peninsula Electricity Market (MIBEL), Acciona owns renewable facilities in operation totalling 165.5 megawatts (MW), of which 119.7 MW are wind power (19 wind farms), while 45.8 MWp correspond to the Amareleja photovoltaic solar plant near Moura. Overall, they generated 386 GWh in 2018.

In October, it was reported that the Spanish infrastructure and renewable energy conglomerate, had signed an agreement with the US-based company Tenaska to acquire a portfolio of solar PV projects in seven states across the country. The portfolio comprises approximately 3,000 megawatts (MW) of rated power in utility-scale solar plants and an additional 1.000 MW capacity of battery storage.