company uses 4,000km of pipeline in Spain to transport oil and fuels, and also manages about forty factories hundreds of hydrocarbon storage tanks decided to build solar power plants to power its facilities.
For exolumrenamed old like this Hydrocarbon Logistics Company (CLH)The cost of purchasing electricity is the second largest item in the cost structure, after only salary costs. In addition, electricity consumption is the main source of the company’s greenhouse effect emissions (the group has just approved moving its goal of zero net emissions ten years ahead to 2040).
Powering large facilities to transport and store hydrocarbons in tanks last year consumed about 260 gigawatt hours (GWh) in Spain alone; this is 80% of all electricity demand from its operations in the eight countries in which it operates. The group already has contracts to purchase electricity with renewables guaranteed (up to almost a quarter of its total demand), but now it wants to. become a large company that produces its own electricity increasing the weight of green energy and lowering the energy bill it supports.
“We bought a lot of energy to be able to feed the pumping systems of the oil pipelines. We are building our own solar power plants to generate energy and lower the cost of energy by moving oil,” he explains. Jorge Lanza, CEO of Exolum, Aware of the blow caused by electricity price hikes last year due to the energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
Exolum already has three self-consumption photovoltaic plants in Spain that went into operation last year and is working to commission three more in the short term. on the nails 10 million euro joint investment The group estimates that the six power plants for its construction and the expansion of some will serve to meet 10% of the company’s entire electricity consumption. target is to reach at least 20% with new installsAs the CEO admitted in a press conference this week.
The former CLH has photovoltaic plants operating in Peloponnese (Toledo); in Barcelona, which has already been expanded three times and the work is underway to expand the facility for the fourth time; and in Algeciras, where the group is trying to complete its third and final construction phase later this year. Exolum is also finishing the construction of a new self-consumption solar power plant in Huelva and is processing permits to build two more plants in Poblete (Ciudad Real) and Arahal (Sevilla).
The company claims to be exploring other alternatives to reduce its emissions, such as: Supply of electricity from renewable sources to third parties through long-term contracts (PPA according to industry jargon) and the application of new, more efficient and lower consumption technologies in pumping systems. Exolum uses pipeline planning systems and alsofriction reducing additives in the transport of hydrocarbons They pass through pipes to save energy and apply algorithms to dose these additives and maximize their efficiency.