Volvo Cars’ Taizhou manufacturing plant has switched to biogas, making it the company’s first plant in China to achieve climate-neutral status. The plant’s switch from natural gas will result in a reduction of more than 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Despite being a small share of total Scope 1-3 emissions of 43 million tons, securing climate-neutral energy for the Taizhou plant is an important step towards the goal of having climate-neutral manufacturing operations by 2025 and reducing emissions across global operations, the company said. This ambition is also part of a broader aim to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
The Taizhou plant already used climate-neutral electricity, and this latest move makes sure that it also has climate-neutral heating. It’s Volvo’s second car plant globally to become climate-neutral after the Torslanda facility in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Taizhou plant’s energy supply comprises electricity and heating. It produces around 40% of its electricity need from on-site solar panels—a share that is set to expand in the coming years.
Solar roofs at Volvo Car Taizhou Plant
The remaining 60%, which comes from the grid, is also climate-neutral electricity from solar. Its heating need is, with this latest switch, met by using climate-neutral biogas.
Volvo Cars recently expanded its sustainability strategy with new ambitious goals for the coming years. The new aim to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 builds on a previous ambition of being climate neutral by 2040. It clarifies that the first priority is to reduce real emissions before turning to carbon removals to mitigate any unavoidable emissions. The company is also encouraging suppliers to do the same.
