Gypsum industry news

US: Saint-Gobain in the US has entered into a 12-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Invenergy, a leading privately held global developer and operator of sustainable energy solutions, for 120MW of the 250MW Blooming Grove Wind Farm capacity in McLean County, Illinois, which recently began operations.

This agreement is the largest renewable energy deal to date for Saint-Gobain and is a key milestone in supporting the group's target to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The associated Renewable Energy Certificate System (RECS) represents 40% of the Group's CO₂ emissions from electricity in the US, resulting in a 21% reduction of Saint-Gobain's overall carbon footprint (scope 1 and 2) in the US.

With this agreement and other ongoing projects, the share of renewable electricity within Saint- Gobain's worldwide electricity consumption, will double in 2021, from 18.9% in 2020.

France: Saint-Gobain is among 157 businesses which signed a letter to European Union (EU) members’ governments urging the enactment of higher 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The letter calls on all EU leaders to target a reduction of 55% by 2030 in line with the European Green deal.

Chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Pierre-André de Chalendar said, “The right decisions now can help create and protect healthy, thriving and fair communities and secure a roadmap for a prosperous economy. From a business and investor perspective, clarity on the net zero transition pathway and timetables for each sector - as well as policy that enables substantial investments in carbon neutral solutions - is essential. This in turn would provide us with the confidence needed to invest decisively at the necessary pace and scale to reduce emissions, create decent green jobs, drive innovation, and accelerate the rebuilding of a resilient zero carbon economy."

UK: Global not-for-profit organisation CDP has included Saint-Gobain on its Climate Change A-List 2019 for environmental transparency and performance aimed at facilitating a zero-net carbon economy. Only a handful of industrial producers achieved inclusion on the list, including US-based insulation producer OwensCorning and Germany’s HeidelbergCement and steel producer Thyssenkrupp. The company said that the listing commended its ‘ambitious commitment made in 2019 to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, in line with the +1.5°C warming scenarios.’

Germany: Scientists have observed tailor-made specialist micro-organisms directly 'feeding' on CO2-containing flue gases from lignite-fired power stations, in what is being described as a 'very promising' initial result of a research project run by RWE Power and Brain AG. The research may have interesting implications for the gypsum industry, which already uses desulphurised flue gas.

The joint project, which has been running since January 2010, aims to convert CO2 into biomass or directly into secondary raw materials with the help of micro-organisms bred to explore innovative CO2 conversion and synthesis pathways. The ultimate aims of the project are to produce industrially-usable products. These are likely to include insulation and construction materials.

"Our pioneering work in the search for biotechnological CO2 conversion solutions bears first fruit," said Dr Johannes Heithoff, head of research and development at RWE Power. "We continue to lead the efforts to protect the climate."

The work is being carried out at the Coal Innovation Centre located at the Niederaussem power plant, which hopes to produce scaleable solutions to reducing emissions from coal-fired power stations. If such solutions can be found, the gypsum industry may find that desulphurisation of flue-gas moves into competition with the production of insulation materials or other chemicals.