Gypsum industry news

Romania: Saint-Gobain Romania has signed a 5-year renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) with OMV PetRom. Under the PPA, OMV PetRom will provide power from wind and solar power plants to Saint-Gobain Romania, beginning in January 2026. Total energy supplied under the contract will be 800GWh. This will cover 100% of the producer’s electricity consumption.

Italy: Saint-Gobain has entered into a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Switzerland-based utilities provider Axpo Holding. Under the agreement, Axpo Holding will supply 22GWh/yr of renewable electricity from a newly built wind farm in Puglia. The deal will fulfil 11% of Saint-Gobain's Italian energy needs across 10 sites.

The latest PPA with Axpo Italia is Saint-Gobain's fifth in Italy. Collectively, these will bring the group’s reliance on renewables in its Italian operations to 20%.

India: Saint-Gobain has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Vibrant Energy, a subsidiary of Macquarie Asset Management's Green Investment Group (MAM-GIG), to provide wind and solar electricity to six local sites. The 20-year PPA will start in 2024 and bring the company’s national renewable electricity share to 65% in 2025. Under the agreement, Vibrant Energy will provide Saint-Gobain with 189GWhr/yr of renewable electricity. The company says that it is on target to achieve 100% renewable electricity in India by 2030 by replacing fossil fuels with biomass, using waste heat recovery and other measures.

Saint-Gobain India operates 76 manufacturing plants in the country including four gypsum wallboard units.

Poland: Saint-Gobain has signed a renewable electricity agreement (Power Purchase Agreement) with Tion Renewables AG (currently being renamed from Pacifico Renewables Yield AG), the German wind and solar power producer. The 15-year agreement will run from 2025 and cover around 45% of Saint-Gobain Poland's electricity needs.

"This power supply agreement is an important milestone for Saint-Gobain in Poland. It will contribute to a significant reduction in our CO₂ emissions, in line with the group's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050' said Joanna Czynsz-Piechowiak, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain Poland. "It will enable a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 135,000t/yr, i.e. nearly 20% of Saint-Gobain's scope 1 and 2 emissions in Poland.

The PPA foresees the purchase of approximately 190GWh of wind energy annually. This is equivalent to supplying about 100,000 European homes with renewable electricity each year. The total capacity of the wind farms is equivalent to circa 52MW spread over three sites and 20 wind turbines. This announcement illustrates how Saint-Gobain is stepping up the pace on its carbon neutrality roadmap and comes in the wake of the recent endorsement by the Science Based Targets initiative of the group's commitments to reduce CO₂ emissions by 2050.

UK: Portugal-based Gypfor has agreed to sell its upcoming Newport gypsum wallboard plant to Germany-based Knauf. Gypfor began building the plant at Associated British Ports’ Port of Newport in March 2021. Knauf estimates that it will commission it later in 2022, and commence full operations in 2023. The plant will be equipped with solar and wind power plants, as well as on-site gypsum wallboard recycling facilities. 54 people will be employed in gypsum wallboard production at the site. Knauf says that the addition of the new plant to its existing facilities at Immingham, Lincolnshire, and Sittingbourne, Kent, will enlarge its UK capacity by 20%.

Knauf’s UK managing director Ian Stokes said “This new plant will significantly increase our ability to service customers throughout the UK, and particularly those in South Wales, the Midlands and the South-West of England. It is a very exciting move for Knauf and, following recent investment in increasing the capacity of Knauf Insulation, reflects the confidence of the Knauf Group in the UK construction sector.”

Canada/US: Saint-Gobain North America and its subsidiary CertainTeed say they have reduced their CO₂ emissions from electricity usage by about a third in 2021 through the use of renewable energy contracts. In February 2020, Saint-Gobain entered into a 12-year virtual power purchase agreement with the Blooming Grove Wind Farm in McLean County, Illinois. At the time, the agreement was the largest renewable energy deal in Saint-Gobain’s 356-year history. Saint-Gobain worked with Edison Energy, an industrial energy advisor, on the arrangement.

“We’re thrilled with the results of our partnership with the Blooming Grove Wind Farm, and will continue to look for ways to maximise our positive impact, for our customers and the communities where we do business, while minimising our environmental footprint,” said Mark Rayfield, the chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain North America and CertainTeed. “In this next chapter of our company’s history, our team will strive to lead our industry towards a more sustainable future.”

UK: Associated British Ports (ABP) has celebrated the commencement of a project to build a new plasterboard factory at the Port of Newport, Wales which will create around 60 new full-time jobs in the area.

The new facility will be used to store gypsum, which will be delivered by ship before being used for the manufacture of wallboard. This will eliminate the need to transport raw materials from the port to an in-land factory by road, which will help reduce CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, the factory will benefit from green power generated by ABP's on-site renewable generation units, including wind and solar sources.

As part of the project, ABP, together with a number of European-based inward investors, has invested around Euro27m to create the new manufacturing facility in Newport. The Welsh Government has also contributed Euro870,000 in support of the project.

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.

US: France-based Saint-Gobain has announced a 120MW wind power supply deal with Blooming Grove Wind Farm, the largest renewable energy contract in the gypsum wallboard producer’s history. The 12-year contract, which secures 120MW of the available 250MW of power for Saint-Gobain from the wind farm in Illinois, will reduce the company’s US carbon footprint by 21%, it says. “This makes North America a significant contributor in our global network towards helping meet Saint-Gobain’s sustainability goal of net-zero CO_² emissions by 2050,” said Saint-Gobain North America president and CEO Mark Rayfield.