It might not be totally green and clean, but Fonterra could achieve some wins reducing carbon emissions by almost 100,000 tonnes if it converted coil boilers at three of its North Island dairy plants to gas, according to estimates provided by First Gas to the Productivity Commission. First Gas drew attention to the potential savings as a Transpower report put further heat on industrial users of coal to consider alternative technologies. Fonterra chief operating officer Robert Spurway responded that it had looked at a number of options, including gas, to reduce its usage of coal. "We have a commitment to reduce our emissions to net zero by 2050 and this means our focus is on delivering the best value for money in regards to capital expenditure versus emission reduction across all our sites," he said. READ MORE: * Danone to cut carbon emissions at Balclutha plant to zero * Government talks to Fonterra about speeding up replacement of coal boilers * Fonterra pledges to stop building new coal boilers immediately First Gas estimated Fonterra could cut its carbon emissions at its Waitoa factory by 40 per cent to 56,221 tonnes by converting it from coal to gas. Similar percentage savings could be made at its smaller factories at Te Awamutu and Hautapu, it said. Climate Change Minister James Shaw revealed this week that Fonterra could receive help from the Government's $100 million Green Investment Fund to reduce its reliance on coal. A top British clean energy expert Michael Liebreich said during a visit to Wellington last month that Fonterra's use of coal to power boilers that dry milk into milk powder was "insane" and old-school and must stop. Greater carbon saving could be achieved by converting coal boilers to run on electricity, rather than on gas, given that more than 80 per cent of New Zealand's electricity comes from renewable energy and that the Government has a target of increasing that to 100 per cent by 2035. But Fonterra has said that would in at least some cases involve expensive upgrades to the electricity grid. Transpower agreed in its report that electrifying significant process heat applications would "obviously require more electricity to be generated and then distributed via the transmission and local lines company networks". But it said most people would be surprised by the impact that electrifying industrial processes could have on the country's carbon emissions and there was some "low hanging fruit". So-called "process heat" made up over a quarter of New Zealand's energy-related emissions, and the dairying industry was responsible for almost a quarter of that slice, it said. Emissions from process heat had increased by about 45 per cent over the past 25 years, it said. "To meet New Zealand's commitments under the Paris Agreement, the appropriate electrification of process heat is just as important as the electrification of transport," its report said. Shaw said Transpower's analysis showed cleaner options with electricity were achievable. "It matches last week's decision by our biggest exporter, Fonterra, to put an immediate stop on building new coal-boilers and not to increase its capacity to burn coal from now on," he said.
Dairy cooperative Fonterra could reduce its CO2 emissions by almost 100,000 mt by switching the coil boilers at its Waitoa, Te Awamutu and Hautapu plants to gas, according to the Paris Agreement. The figures were among estimates presented to the New Zealand Productivity Commission. Fonterra, which as a target of net zero by 2050, said it looked at "a number of options".