Bottling up Emissions
In line with a major initiative by the European Union (EU) to reduce emissions, GE Energy, the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. and the energy development company ContourGlobal celebrated the opening of a new cogeneration plant at Coca-Cola Hellenic’s Ploiesti bottling facility near Bucharest. The Romanian natural gas-fueled cogeneration plant represents the first of a planned group of 15 combined heat and power (CHP) plants that will be installed at Coca-Cola Hellenic’s facilities in 12 European countries.
Since cogeneration is more energy efficient than using separate power and heat generating sources, it is an effective anti-pollution strategy. As a result, the EU in recent years has begun urging member states to modernize their industrial and municipal cogeneration systems to improve energy efficiency and curtail regional emissions. Each of the bottling plants utilizing GE Energy’s Jenbacher CHP engines will be able to eliminate up to 40% of their annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which demonstrates the ongoing commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of the bottling operations in support of EU goals, while also reducing the operational costs by generating their own onsite power.
Under the first phase of the Coca-Cola Hellenic CHP initiative, GE Energy is supplying ContourGlobal, the project developer, with 19 Jenbacher gas engines—representing a total output of 58 MW. The first two of GE’s Jenbacher cogeneration modules were installed at Coca-Cola Hellenic’s Romania bottling facility while the other units will be installed at Coca-Cola facilities in six other European countries including, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Greece, United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) and Italy.
The initiative supports the European Commission’s goal to adopt more stringent environmental targets for member states to help Europe achieve a 20% reduction in emissions by 2020. GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engines will be delivered throughout 2009 and 2010, with commissioning scheduled as the plants are ready. The equipment is being built at GE’s gas engine manufacturing center in Jenbach, Austria.
For more information: www.ge.com
