For several months, the Ancizes site of Aubert & Duval, an Eramet Groupe subsidiary, has implemented numerous measures as part of its environment policy. Another stage was recently completed! The French Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the technical dossier of the solar panels that will be installed on the site’s car parks in the near future.

Under this project, carried out in partnership with Quadran, a Total Groupe subsidiary, more than 7,000 panels will be installed on a surface area of 11,710 m2. This new solar farm is set to generate 2,369.4 MWh/year based on around 1,090 hours of sunshine per year. Estimated electricity production is equivalent to all of the electricity used by all of the rolling mill’s heat treatment furnaces. With regards to the environment, this installation will prevent the emission of 784 tonnes of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to the energy carbon footprint of over 2,000 inhabitants.

The panels are due to be installed this summer and shall start to generate power in the last quarter of 2019.

“The solar energy project is the first green energy brick to be laid at the plant. It is the precursor of a series of projects that form part of our goal to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible and, eventually, offset existing emissions with green energy sources,” explains Frédéric Pidoux, HSE Manager, Les Ancizes

 

A project that is part of a more global environmental process

A series of projects has been launched by the Ancizes site in order to reduce the environmental impact of its activities. For example, last year, two electric cars (Renault Zoé) joined the fleet of rental vehicles and the gas-fired furnaces in the forging sector were replaced with next-generation furnaces that should reduce energy consumption by a factor of four. Another example that complements these tangible investments is the introduction of an operational management process dedicated to energy that analyses the consumption data of each sector in order to make the best possible use of existing tools and thereby consume less.

The flagship “relamping” project that will concern all of Eramet High Performance Alloys Division sites is also noteworthy: the entire lighting system that currently uses conventional bulbs will be replaced with a system that uses LED bulbs by the end of 2020.