Power purchase agreements are on the rise. Most active are those energy intensive players who see sustainability and a low carbon footprint essential for their future business success. Many of them have an ambitious goal to use renewable energy sources only.
For example Facebook has signed a 294 MW wind power purchasing agreement with Vattenfall. The power for their data centers in the Nordics will come from the Norwegian Bjerkreim wind farm.
– Bjerkreim wind farm is built on our rock foundations, which will help Facebook to reach their renewable energy goals, says Kari Tuominen, the business director for Peikko wind turbine foundations.
Another international giants, Google and IKEA also purchase renewable power which is generated on Peikko’s low emission foundations.
Total lifecycle emissions matter
Peikko is the first player in the market who has made a life cycle assessment for its wind turbine foundations.
Using the Markbydgen wind park in Piteå, Sweden, as a pilot project, Bionova Ltd has assessed both the construction materials and the transportation on site. The comparison was made between two different gravity designs and Peikko’s rock foundation.
– We found out that everything that’s done before the actual building of the foundation – the design, the choice of steel and concrete quality – has the biggest impact to CO2 emissions, Tuominen notes.
Depending on the design, a traditional shallow gravity foundation can use up to 70 tons of steel and 700 m3 of concrete. With these quantities, the choice of material source and quality can really make a difference to the emissions.
Designing for lower price and smaller carbon footprint
– Developed specifically for the Markbydgen wind park, our current gravity foundation design uses 60 to 80 m3 less concrete compared to the previous one. On top of that, it needs 6 tons less reinforcing. This is good news for anyone interested in lowering their CO2 emissions, Kari Tuominen describes.
As the icing on the cake, Peikko has also been able to lower the average foundation price by EUR 20.000. Tuominen argues further that the Peikko gravity foundation designs use up to 20% less concrete and steel than the competing foundations.
A new approach in the works
– We plan to launch a new approach in autumn 2019. Compared to the more traditional design, the new one will use up to 10.000 kg less steel and 500 m3 less concrete. That translates into 50 concrete mixer loads, Kari Tuominen comments.
– We expect that the market will follow the big boys that see low total emissions as a must in their operations. That’s why we are continually looking for ways to reduce emissions of our foundation designs.
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