Nestle launches wind turbine farm as part of renewable energy plan

Nestle, a company heavily criticized for its freshwater practices, has announced the launch of a wind farm with nine turbines. This new wind farm is part of the company's renewable energy effort, which has already resulted in a substantial part of Nestle's energy usage being accounted for. The new wind turbine project is located in Scotland.

The nine wind turbines at the new facility are capable of producing enough renewable energy to account for half of Nestle's United Kingdom and Ireland factories, warehouses, and office buildings, according to the company. Over the course of a year, this wind farm will generate about 125 gigawatt hours of energy, which will be used on the local grid to power about 30,000 houses.

According to Nestle, it is already using completely renewable energy from the grid for its complete Ireland and UK operations. However, the new wind farm enables it to supply half of its own power needs within the region. At some point — as fast as possible, based on the company's statements — Nestle plans to account for all of energy usage via renewable methods.

Many tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have invested in renewable energy projects to cover the power their facilities and operations use. Such projects have grown massively in size over the last few years, and many companies have either achieved or are within a few years of achieving 100% renewable usage.

Of course, many companies do not directly utilize the energy their projects generate, but rather invest in renewable projects that cover enough energy to account for their total annual usage. This renewable-generated power is typically fed into local grid systems and dispersed to local homes and businesses.

SOURCE: CNBC