The past year has seen significant developments in the number of AESSEAL environmental projects, with £11 million and counting spent as part of the AES Engineering Group ‘29 by 29’ investment pledge. The following account highlights the vast extent of the AES Engineering Group’s solar energy capacity, its collaboration on carbon capture and storage technology, and its continued lobbying for greater UK-wide investment in green energy infrastructure.
Emma Cook - Sustainability Officer at AESSEAL plc.
Solar powered and data driven
The Mill Close ‘Factory for the Future’ is due to open in the spring, and when complete there will be a total of 2993 solar panels installed, capable of generating 1,316kWp. Over a 12-month period the solar energy generated will represent a third of the site’s electricity use.
The green energy infrastructure at the Rotherham headquarters also includes 2.2MWh of battery arrays, replacing the previous 500kWh battery array, which will be moved to Bradford. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) allows excess energy generated on sunny days to be stored and exported to the grid to reduce peak electricity demand.
The solar panel, green infrastructure investment and the ‘green-only’ portion of a BREEAM excellent building at Mill Close totals £5.7 million. It is an investment in the health of the planet, as it makes more green energy available for others. It will not reduce the AESSEAL Scope 2 emissions, as the business has been buying green energy since 2007.
Mill Close is also working on Scope 1 (direct emissions) by replacing its forklift with a fully electric version from May 2023. This will eliminate the use of propane on site, saving 1.7 tonnes of CO₂e emissions.
Elsewhere in the UK, Mangham Road in Rotherham has been assessed as having the capacity for a 39kWp (peak electricity generation on a clear sunny day) solar array, and AESSEAL Bradford will have the capacity for a 400kWp solar array following the completion of its roof strengthening works.
In the US, the 552kWp solar array at the AESSEAL Inc. headquarters in Rockford, Tennessee, is now complete. To accompany the installation, a 500kWh BESS with voltage optimization is expected to arrive on-site in April. This investment also includes an environmentally friendly heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Meanwhile the AESSEAL plant in Odessa, Texas, has taken delivery of monitoring equipment to measure site electricity demand and base load, in preparation for a solar array.
Elsewhere in the world, in Tarragona Spain a 34kWp solar array has been connected to an app which will supply weekly data on its electricity generation, and 100kWp of solar panels has been installed at the AESSEAL Deutschland GmbH main office in Kronau, Germany.
A 355kWp solar array in Pune, India, is part-connected, and is currently awaiting the 250kWh BESS, which will arrive in Mumbai in March. The BESS will provide additional power factor correction and voltage optimization for the site.
At a cost of £0.9 million, a 1.5MWp solar farm in India is being opened in March 2023. This will offset the AES Engineering Group’s greenhouse gas emissions, providing an in-house offset scheme for the group and supporting progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition, AESSEAL is designing the first BREEAM excellent building in Australia. This will include a 150kWp solar array, with BREEAM assessing sustainable performance metrics at every stage – covering the building’s energy and water use, ecology, and management.
Battery Arrays
Betterworld.Solutions has been lobbying for UK-wide investment in battery arrays which could reduce peak UK electricity demand by 17.5%, saving 14.6 million tonnes of CO₂e emissions a year. The investment in green energy storage could achieve greater environmental savings than the £26 billion currently being spent by the UK government on the nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C.
Carbon Capture and Storage
AESSEAL has provided over £30,000 of materials and, more importantly, valuable design, technical, managerial and directorial support, completely free of charge, to Professor Styring from the University of Sheffield, to support the development of a proof-of-concept novel carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The resulting FluRefin prototype, which offers a compact application of CCS, was shortlisted for The Engineer magazine’s prestigious 'Collaborate to Innovate Award'.
Chris Rea, M.D. of AES Engineering Ltd said:
We decided to help Professor Styring because his concept had not been a priority for development either by the University of Sheffield or subsequently by the AMRC. As most carbon capture schemes generate more CO2 than they prevent or capture, this appealed to me because it used no heat and only pressure in the process. The proof of concept proved that the technology was CO2 Net beneficial. We will never have any commercial interest in the product, but we continue to have an interest in the health of our planet, and hope that the University of Sheffield has a commercial success with the invention.
Scope Three Emissions Reductions
Machine Tools Produced in Japan
Until recently all Machine Tools supplied from Japan were 200-volt 3-phase, and used old-fashioned step-up transformers that wasted up to 5% of the total energy used in the transformation. There are hundreds of thousands in use globally, which makes this a climate change continuous improvement opportunity.
Voltage Optimizer
The UK grid is 380 to 415 volt 3-phase (nominal 400 volt) so the first step to save energy was to install a plant wide voltage optimizer that reduced the power available to 380 volts with an overall reduction in energy consumed site-wide of 9%.
Amorphous Core Transformers
Stage two was to investigate the wasted energy on stepping up 200 volt 3-phase to 380 volts, and discovering it was an astonishingly bad 5% on average, because old-fashioned transformers are inefficient.
AESSEAL plc invested over £180,000 in modern amorphous core transformers, which reduced the wasted energy to less than 1%.
Betterworld member Engineering Technology Group has also partnered with Powerstar to install amorphous core transformers on all newly imported machines, as well as offering upgraded transformers to existing customers to reduce the wasted energy and emit less CO2.
New Machine Tool Purchases
DMG MORI is probably the largest machine tool manufacturer in the world and is a Betterworld.Solutions member and a valued supplier to the AES Engineering Ltd group.
Following the direct intervention of Dr Mori, AESSEAL received the first ever 400-volt 3-phase machines from Japan in 2022, which when replicated will have a significant and positive environmental impact.
Supply Chain Engagement
We have conducted an ESG audit of our supply chain, and have identified key areas where we can encourage our suppliers to become more environmentally friendly. A Supplier Sustainability Engagement event will be held on Microsoft Team on April 19.
We encourage suppliers to join Betterworld.Solutions, a best practice sharing philanthropic organization, which encourages businesses to implement an investment policy to prevent global warming.
In April, our Supplier Sustainability award will recognize and promote those suppliers that are making most environmentally friendly progress to protect the planet.
Reducing plastic waste
To help eliminate single use plastic bottles, eleven Betterworld water cooler units are in place across UK sites including Mill Close, Mangham Road, Derby, and Bradford. Betterworld coolers have also been installed on sites in Spain, Portugal, and France.
Betterworld members (those who have adopted the investment policy to prevent global warming), including the OSL Group, Rotherham United Football Club, and South Yorkshire Community Foundation, have also received self-installation water cooler units. The coolers and glass and multi-use recycled plastic Betterworld branded bottles reduce the need for single-use plastic bottles, and in doing so, reduce the human impact on the planet.
Electric Vehicles
To support the growing AESSEAL electric vehicle fleet of nine, there are now over twenty electric vehicle (EV) charging points connected to AESSEAL sites across the UK, with a further ten to be installed at the Mill Close, Rotherham, headquarters in July (2023). EV charging points have also been installed in six locations in Europe, and supplied free of charge to community venues including Rotherham United Football Club, Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Cavendish Cancer Care, and Wentworth Woodhouse.
Net Zero and Carbon Footprint
Day one of the ISO14064 assessment began on February 20 and ran for nine days. It covered the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint) of the AES Engineering Group. The assessment promotes the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the measurement of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and is fundamental to the AES Engineering Net Zero commitment.
