Škoda plans to power its main car factory by burning carbon-neutral biomass such as wood chips and phyto-pellets.
Employing its energy provider subsidiary, ŠKO-ENERGO, the automaker hopes to reduce its carbon footprint at the Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic. Construction work to convert the factory to biomass fuel will begin in 2024.
With estimated costs of €141 million ($158 million), the upgraded heating plant will be one of the largest projects of its kind in the country. It will contribute to Škoda’s environmental targets along the entire value chain, anchored in its Next Level Škoda Strategy 2030.
A total revamp of the power plant will be carried out within three years. All boilers will exclusively use biomass, consisting of 70% wood chips and 30% phyto-pellets. The biomass will be certified according to both European and Czech legislation, emphasizing the sustainability of the entire supply chain.
Once the transition is complete, annual CO2 savings will amount to an estimated 290,000 metric tons per year. Currently, the power plant uses a combination of coal and biomass and by 2022, renewable energy sources accounted for approximately 35% of all energy used at Škoda’s Czech production plants.
Michael Oeljeklaus, Škoda board member for production and logistics and chairman of the ŠKO-ENERGO Supervisory Board says: “The proposed transformation of the ŠKO-ENERGO plant represents the most radical modernization of the company’s energy supplies in the last 25 years.”
Skod
