UltraTech Cement Limited, an Aditya Birla Group company and India’s largest manufacturer of grey cement, white cement, and ready-mix concrete, has announced its commitment to Climate Group’s RE100 initiative at Climate Week NYC 2021. As part of this commitment, UltraTech targets to meet 100% of its electricity requirement for its entire global operations through renewables sources by 2050.
RE100, led by Climate Group in partnership with CDP, brings together the world’s most influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
In the last two years, UltraTech has scaled up its contracted renewable energy capacity by 2.5 times. The Company has already set a target to scale up its green energy mix to 34% of its total power requirement by 2024, from the current levels of 13%.
“We have made tremendous progress in scaling up the use of green energy in our operations. The commitment to move to 100% renewable energy to meet our electrical energy requirements by 2050 is both a reflection of our confidence in the progress we have made, as well as our commitment to overcome the challenges ahead. With us now joining the RE100 group, UltraTech will become part of a high-profile global campaign that advocates for a strong business case in transitioning to renewable energy sources in building a decarbonized economy,” said Kailash Jhanwar, managing director, UltraTech Cement.
“The RE100 announcement is in line with UltraTech’s focus to institutionalize its carbon reduction initiatives through measurable targets and commitments. RE100 provides us with an opportunity to access knowledge on emerging technologies. These would help us fast track the transition to 100% RE for our electrical energy requirements,” said E. R. Raj Narayanan, business head and chief manufacturing officer, UltraTech Cement.
UltraTech Cement Limited is a US$ 5.9 billion building solutions powerhouse. With a consolidated grey cement capacity of 116.75 MTPA, it is the third-largest cement producer in the world, excluding China. It is the only company globally (outside of China) to have 100+ MTPA of cement manufacturing capacity in a single country. The Company’s business operations span UAE, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, and India.
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This initiative to replace Electricity use in its Cement Operations to Renewable Energy is commendable.
However, to be considered a Producer of “Green” Cement it needs to replace ALL POLLUTING Fuels etc… Coal, Burners etc to Electricity and also eliminate CO2 and other Gas Emissions too.
This latter will be challenging as converting CaCO3 (Limestone) to CaO (Clinker) results in release of CO2 and is the major source of CO2 in making Cement.
It is a good start in using Renewable Electricity (from Solar Facilities) for Plant Auxiliaries and Heating Purposes, thereby eliminating CO2 Emissions; the conversion of CaCO3 to CaO WITHOUT RELEASING CO2 may require the Cement Industry to completely replace Cement with …. something else…. (remember Sweden’s HYBRIT Project eliminates use of Coal (Carbon) altogether as a Reducing Agent by using Hydrogen from Electricity)