Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced a 15-year contract extension with Calpine Energy Solutions, LLC to incorporate a solar power component into the electricity supply mix for the company’s world-class acetyl intermediates chemical manufacturing facility located in Clear Lake, Texas.
Calpine Energy Solutions is expected to supply the Celanese Clear Lake facility with 45 megawatts of peak solar contracted capacity. On an annualized basis, this represents approximately 142,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy and will equate to taking approximately 14,500 cars off the road. This contract equates to about 33 percent of Celanese’s annual electricity consumption at the site and approximately 65 percent of the site’s daytime electricity usage during the summer months.
“Celanese is committed to protecting the earth’s natural resources and helping our partners and customers do the same,” said Lori Ryerkerk, Celanese Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As we work to develop sustainable energy practices and implement leading environmental management systems, Celanese is putting our larger vision for sustainability into practice every day and demonstrating our global commitment to environmental goals that include energy conservation, emissions control, release prevention, wastewater discharge controls and waste reuse and recycling.”
“Solar power energy is growing in relevance and significance as a source of renewable electricity and we are seeing that the resource availability is providing a better match to meet demand during critical times of the year versus other large, fast-growing, renewable sources,” said Jon Mortimer, Vice President, Global Manufacturing, Celanese. “Additionally, solar power generation to the Clear Lake facility acts as a natural hedge to help offset high electricity prices during peak hours in the summer months.”
As the site owner, Celanese will extend this solar power supply to other site partners at the Clear Lake facility. Site partner Arkema, which owns and operates the acrylic acid and acrylic esters units at the Clear Lake site, has expressed a strong interest in solar power supply.
“Arkema is constantly evolving its industrial practices to reduce its environmental footprint. Increasing renewable energy components with solar power at our Clear Lake site will allow significant greenhouse gas emissions reduction. This is fully aligned with the Group commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce its absolute emissions in line with a global warming well below the 2°C trajectory, according to the Science Based Target methodology,” said Virginie Delcroix, Vice President Sustainable Development at Arkema. “Industrial organizations play a major role in the global transition towards sustainability. This common agreement on renewable energy at the world-class Clear Lake facility further demonstrates industry’s commitment.”
“Calpine Energy Solutions is proud to have been able to deliver a solar solution to Celanese and Arkema that achieved their sustainability and risk management goals while maintaining a competitive electricity cost position at the Clear Lake facility,” said James Wood, President, Calpine Energy Solutions.
Celanese expects this agreement will provide a sustainable source in energy mix and estimates significant annual savings versus on-peak supply from other energy sources. Financial terms of the contract extension are not being disclosed at this time.
