December 14, 2023: Cement and Ready-Mix Concrete (RMC) company UltraTech Cement on December 13, 2023, announced its plans to increase the overall share of green energy in its total energy mix to 85% by 2030. As an interim target, UltraTech plans to increase its total green energy share threefold from its current 22% to 60% by FY26.
K C Jhanwar, managing director, UltraTech Cement, said, “As the largest cement company in the country, it is our responsibility to lead the way in building a more sustainable and green future for the industry. Green energy is a key enabler of decarbonisation. We have been constantly scaling up our green energy mix in our total power requirement over the years, which is a testament to our commitment towards a clean and green tomorrow.”
As a member of EP100, UltraTech has targeted to meet 100% of its electricity requirement through renewable sources by 2050, as part of its RE100 commitment. To boost the share of green energy in the overall energy mix, UltraTech has implemented several initiatives including switching to renewable energy sources and expanding Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS). Currently, the Company has 691 MW of green energy capacity, which includes 262 MW of WHRS installed capacity and 429 MW of contracted renewable energy. Cumulatively, this translates to about 22% of UltraTech’s current energy requirements.
UltraTech has adopted a holistic approach towards reducing the use of fossil-fuels and increasing the use of green and renewable energy. This includes leveraging emerging technologies to reduce reliance on thermal energy in manufacturing operations and also driving adoption of sustainable transport with logistics partners. UltraTech has stated its intent not to invest any further in thermal power capacity, keeping in line with its objective to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and increase use of green energy.
Technology can play a pivotal role in accelerating decarbonisation in manufacturing operations. UltraTech is constantly exploring the use of new technologies to accelerate the decarbonisation of its operations. A recent example of this is UltraTech’s partnership with Coolbrook, a Finland-based transformational technology and engineering company. UltraTech is jointly developing a project to implement Coolbrook’s RotoDynamic HeaterTM (RDH) technology in one of UltraTech’s cement manufacturing units for decarbonisation of cement manufacturing process. The RDH technology uses electrification from renewable sources for the heating processes in cement production and removes the need to use fossil fuels, thus helping in accelerating the decarbonisation of cement manufacturing. UltraTech is similarly actively exploring technologies like Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) in collaboration with startup technology companies such as CarbonOrO, Coomtech and Fortera.
In addition to reducing the carbon footprint of its own operations, UltraTech is working with its partners to accelerate decarbonisation across its value chain. Logistics is a key business driver for the cement industry, helping in ensuring easy availability of products for consumers. However, logistics also adds significantly to the carbon footprint of the cement industry, given the reliance on fossil fuels for transport in this segment.
UltraTech has introduced ‘Green Logistics’ in the form of CNG/LNG trucks. The company has pledged to deploy 500 electric trucks and add 1,000 CNG/LNG vehicles in the 40 tonne category in its operations by June 2025 as part of the government of India’s eFAST initiative. Towards this objective, UltraTech is engaging with its logistics partners for the deployment of CNG and LNG trucks to replace the conventional diesel vehicles wherever possible. UltraTech first introduced CNG vehicles in its operations in 2021 and LNG vehicles in 2022. UltraTech today has more than 390 CNG trucks and 50 LNG trucks operational across 17 manufacturing units. The company is looking to scale up this initiative rapidly to other manufacturing locations.
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