Kirovsk (Murmansk region) – The Apatit mining and processing plant (PhosAgro Group) continues to increase the use of green energy for the production of agrochemical products.
In 2022, Apatit increased the amount of green energy used in production to 300 million kilowatt-hours. Thus, 17.8% of the plant’s 2022 production was made using green energy generated by TGC-1’s hydroelectric power plants.
TGC-1 began supplying Apatit with green energy in 2021, from Niva hydroelectric power plant (HPP) No. 3 and the Iovskaya HPP. In 2022, the Knyazhegubskaya HPP and Niva HPP No. 3 produced green energy for Apatit.
“The use of green energy in the production chain enables companies to reduce the carbon footprint of their products, adhere to sustainability principles, demonstrate an environmentally responsible approach to their business and thereby gain additional competitive advantages,” said Alfred Yagafarov, Deputy Managing Director for Electricity and Capacity Sales at TGC-1.
“Apatit, like PhosAgro Group as a whole, is consistently working to reduce the carbon footprint of its products. This includes requirements for suppliers of the goods and services that we use in production. Energy is one of the most consequential and most significant components of this system. And we are proud to be moving in the right direction,” said Andrey Abrashitov, Director of the Kirovsk branch of Apatit (PhosAgro Group).
Increasing the use of green energy is part of PhosAgro’s climate strategy, which calls for a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – scopes 1, 2 and 3 – by 2028 from the 2018 baseline. In addition, specific emissions of scope 1 greenhouse gases already decreased by 16% from 2018 to 2021, while gross emissions for this period declined by nearly 4% despite a continuous increase in production.
A comprehensive corporate energy-efficiency programme is being implemented at Apatit’s production facilities – for example, frequency converters are used, which reduce the power consumed by electric motors and reduce energy losses during engine start-up.
The company’s in-house power generation facilities at its chemical plants are operated largely by recovering the exhaust steam from its sulphuric acid plants. In Volkhov, a similar power generation facility is in pilot operation, as part of an investment project for a new plant, that will meet 90% of the plant’s energy needs.
In addition, PhosAgro, in cooperation with the Government of the Vologda region and the Russian Academy of Sciences, launched its own project in 2021 to create a carbon farm, an area designed to monitor and absorb greenhouse gases. In October 2022, the first part of the carbon sequestration site in the Vologda region was set up on an area covering 100 hectares, where about 110 thousand coniferous and deciduous trees were planted. Using that site as the basis, standard sequestration solutions will be developed.