AstraZeneca Plc is setting up Britain’s first subsidy-free biomethane gas system that will provide the pharmaceutical giant with an industrial-scale supply of clean heat and help slash its carbon footprint.
The drugmaker is spending £100 million ($125 million) in a 15-year partnership with Future Biogas for a facility that will provide four UK sites with 100 gigawatt-hours of green gas per year, or equivalent to the heat demand of more than 8,000 homes, AstraZeneca said. Once operational in 2025, the project will be a blueprint for the commercial use of renewable gas in Britain, it said.
The investment, which also covers improving energy efficiency, is part of AstraZeneca’s efforts to halve its entire carbon footprint by the end of the decade and be net zero by 2045. It comes as investors look ever more closely at how much companies spend on climate plans, with green capex a key indicator for predicting a company’s future value, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“We have very large and important sites in the UK which supply 130 markets, making them a global site in terms of manufacturing and supply,” Juliette White, AstraZeneca’s vice president for global sustainability & safety, health and environment, said in an interview. “We need to address the assets that we have in place.”
AstraZeneca’s UK project follows a similar deal it struck in the US on using biomethane for clean heat, and an agreement last month to get most of its electricity from wind at two sites in Sweden. It also comes after the drugmaker’s decision in 2021 to invest in new manufacturing in Ireland over the UK, citing the former’s commitment to green energy.
Biomethane is the purified form of raw biogas, which is made from the fermentation of natural matter, and can be used as a natural gas substitute. As a result, biomethane can be injected into the existing grid infrastructure.
“We will also see more investments to expand solar panels, as leveraging solar on some of our sites is part of our overall strategy,” White said. “One source of renewable energy doesn’t solve all our design needs, we need a comprehensive strategy.”