Cremora and Maggi 2-minute noodle factory gets big solar plant
Nestlé has installed a 966kW ground-mounted PV solar farm at its Babelegi Manufacturing Plant in Hammanskraal, Gauteng.
Nestlé East and Southern Africa (ESAR) region said the farm’s 1,806 solar PV panels are expected to deliver over 2.13GWh of energy per year.
“This equates to 15.6% of the total electrical energy requirement of the factory for the full year,” the company said.
“This is in line with Nestle’s 2030 Ambition to strive for zero environmental impact in our operation and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”
Among the products manufactured at the plant include Nestlé’s Cremora creamer and Maggi 2-minute noodles.
A second development phase will see another 1.5GWh of annual generation added, meaning that over a quarter of the plant’s annual electricity requirements will be provided by its own solar power.
The 966kW solar farm providing electricity to Nestlé’s Babelegi Manufacturing Plant in Hammanskraal
The plant is Nestlé’s second facility in the Eastern and Southern African region to be supplemented with embedded self-generating solar power.
The company completed another solar farm at its factory in Harrismith in KwaZulu-Natal in August 2022, with a capacity of 1,189kW consisting of 1,946 ground- and carport-mounted solar panels.
These provide enough capacity to cover roughly 10% of the total electrical energy requirement of the factory for the whole year.
Nestlé ESAR technical director Xolile White said the company was committed to procuring its electricity from renewable sources within the shortest practical timescale possible.
White said the existing projects delivered over 3% of Nestlé ESAR’s total power requirements.
In addition to the phase 2 expansion at Babelegi, additional renewable power sites are in the pipeline for Nestlé facilities in East London, Estcourt, Potchefstroom, and the quality assurance centre in Johannesburg.
“These are expected to deliver a total combined capacity of 5.7GW[h], which is 5% of Nestlé ESAR’s energy requirements,” the company said.
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