BY BUSINESS DAILY
East African Breweries Limited’s parent firm Diageo has announced a Sh22 billion investment in solar energy, biomass power and water recovery at its three plants in Kenya and Uganda.
The initiative includes pumping Sh6.5 billion in a solar, water treatment and biomass equipment, followed by additional capital investment in ongoing maintenance and operations.
The project will see Diageo’s breweries in East Africa switch to renewable energy with biomass boilers — heated by wood chip, bamboo, and rice husks — replacing the heavy fuel oil in use currently.
“The new investment will additionally deliver thousands of new green jobs across the entire supply chain, particularly in the supply of biofuels in Kenya and Uganda,” said EABL’s Group CEO, Andrew Cowan.
The initiative is expected to cut the firm’s carbon emissions by 42,000 tonnes a year and the amount of water the brewer uses in operations by 40 per cent.
“Besides reducing our carbon emission by 95 per cent through use of biomass, we will be leveraging solar to deliver a tenth of our power needs,” Mr Cowan said. Read the original article on Business Daily
