AstraZeneca agrees £100 million clean energy deal

Pharmaceuticals group, AstraZeneca, has announced a 15-year agreement worth £100 million to see its UK sites, including at Macclesfield, supplied with renewable biomethane gas.

The partnership with Future Biogas will establish the UK’s first unsubsidised industrial-scale supply of biomethane gas, which will be used to supply the company’s sites in Macclesfield (pictured), Cambridge, Luton and Speke with 100 GWh energy per year, equivalent to the supply of 8,000 homes. The deal forms part of AstraZeneca’s ongoing efforts towards achieving net-zero CO2 emissions, and is estimated to reduce emissions by 20,000 tonnes CO2e per year and add a supply of renewable methane to the national gas grid.

Instead of taking methane from fossil fuel sources, the Future Biogas site will use bacteria to derive methane gas from locally-produced agricultural products and organic waste, and encourage regenerative farming practices to further reduce its carbon footprint. Renewable Gas Guarantee of Origin (RGGO) certificates will be transferred to AstraZeneca, to ensure there is no double counting of emissions savings.

AstraZeneca has also set out a range of energy efficiency improvements to be made at its Macclesfield campus, the UK’s largest medicines manufacturing and development site. Plans include a major refit of the site’s combined heat and power plant, which will save a further 16,000 tonnes CO2e per year. The pharmaceuticals group also plans to upgrade buildings and improve the efficiency of its production and packaging processes to reduce further greenhouse gas emissions.

Juliette White, Vice President, Global Sustainability & Safety, Health & Environment, at AstraZeneca, said:

“Today’s commitment of £100 million shows we are serious about decarbonising the discovery, development and manufacture of medicines and securing a sustainable future for our sites across the UK and globally. In leading from the front on the commercial adoption of clean heat, we are innovating to expand the usage of renewable energy, contributing to the circular economy and accelerating our progress towards net zero.”

Philipp Lukas, CEO of Future Biogas, said:

“AstraZeneca’s ground-breaking investment in green gas affirms its status as a global leader in the transition to net zero. The opportunity to combine unsubsidised biomethane production with regenerative farming benefits local farms and supports the growing focus on soil health and sustainable food production. Future Biogas expects this model to be adopted by many other innovative organisations with strong net zero ambitions.”

This latest commitment to renewable energy in the UK follows other innovative partnerships announced earlier this year. In the US, AstraZeneca is partnering with Vanguard Renewables to enable the delivery of biomethane to all its US sites by the end of 2026. The Company has also entered into an agreement with Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer, to increase the supply of renewable electricity in Sweden.