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- The President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, presided over the inauguration of Celsia Solar La Paila that has a capacity of 9.9 MW and that is made up of around 29,000 solar panels.
- This farm attends 34% of the energy consumption of the Colombina candy production plant in La Paila, Zarzal, with renewable energy.
- In addition, it will save 10,579 tons of CO2 in a year, and in 25 years, which is its useful life, it would be 265,475 tons of CO2.
- The energy that is not consumed by the production plant shall be supplied to the National Electrical Grid, for the benefit of all Colombians.
- During the maximum peak of construction of the solar farm, 152 jobs were created, 57% local labor force, 14% women.
- The investment made reached COP $35 billion.
The Colombina candies that reach consumers in 90 countries are now manufactured with cleaner and more sustainable energy, thanks to the new Celsia Solar La Paila Plant, which is located in the north of the department of Valle del Cauca, in the municipality of Zarzal. This project, which had an investment of COP $35 billion, was developed in order to provide energy to the Colombina candies plant, a food company from Valle del Cauca with more than 90 years of trajectory, that generates more than 5,500 jobs in Colombia. The surplus of the energy produced that is not consumed in the factory shall be supplied to the National Electrical Grid for the benefit of all Colombians.
Today, the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, and the Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa, together with other members of the cabinet, visited Celsia Solar La Paila, the sixth Celsia farm for industrial clients (4 in Colombia and 2 in Central America) and together with the hosts from Celsia and Colombina they took a tour of the plant and got to know its benefits.
During the event, President Duque announced today that the Climate Action Law would be sanctioned, and he stated: “We are the second most biodiverse country on the planet and at the same time one of the most threatened by climate change. With the Climate Action Law, one of the major objectives that we have outlined for the next decades is that we want to be carbon neutral by 2050. The second major bet is that by 2030 we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51%. In this vein, the most important action that has been developed is energy transition, a transformation that is eloquent: at the start of Government we were at 28 MW from non-conventional renewable energy, next year we will be leaving the country with more than 2,800 MW that will finish being installed in December 2022. In other words, 100 times more than in August 2018. This is thanks to the public-private alliance. Today, Celsia is a national leader in the development of NCRE in the country. This is the sustainable Colombia that we are building together.”
The Ministry of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa, gave three important points of the energy transition policy: “First: the massification of NCRE, which is what we are seeing today in this farm with the policies that we have implemented. Today we have around 19 large-scale solar farms and more than 10 self-generation projects. In addition, we have more than 2,500 small-scale projects in different municipalities in the country and we close this 2021 with 700 MW. Second: Today, we reach more than 64 families that did not have an energy service. And third: we set out that the energy transition would allow us to be leaders in climate change in the country and we will be carbon neutral by 2050. The ministry is already certified as carbon neutral with the sector’s actions.”
César Caicedo Jaramillo, CEO of Colombina, said: “at Colombina we are very proud to inaugurate our second solar farm. This is a really important milestone for us, because it represents our efforts to contribute to an efficient solution for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. With this new farm, 25% of the company’s total energy consumption shall come from non-conventional renewable sources.”
Likewise, Ricardo Sierra Fernández, Leader of Celsia, stated at the event: “this type of inaugurations are very exciting for us because with our solar farms we give a touch of competitiveness to companies, in this case to one that is as emblematic and loved as Colombina. We are making this type of investments in alliance with Cubico, which is a investment vehicle of two Canadian pension funds that believe in Colombia. Next year we will build 30 more of this type of farms that will represent approximately 300 MW, and will generate more than five thousand jobs in their construction, and in 3 or 4 years we will be on the way to 1 GW. Another big piece of news that we want to share with you today is that we will be one of the first companies that will be carbon neutral and this for an energy generating company is a milestone: in the last 4 years we reduced our emissions by 76%. This comes together with our ReverdeC ecological recovery program, and at the beginning of 2022 we will celebrate the 10 million tree. The cherry on the cake is that yesterday we signed the company’s first ESG credit for COP $500 billion with Bancolombia. At Celsia, we believe that the concept of energy transition will soon be exhausted, because Colombia is already producing 80% of its energy in renewables, it is a goal that has already been reached. We should feel very proud.”
Other information of interest regarding Celsia Solar La Paila
- It was built in 13.69 hectares.
- It has 57 investors.
Colombina candies, which are now produced with solar energy via the Celsia generation plant, shall reach regions as far from Colombia as New Zealand, Fiji, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, etc.
About Celsia, the energy you want
A company passionate about renewable energy and for energy efficiency, present in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras. It generates and transmits energy from renewable sources (water, sun, and wind) with thermal backup. It has an innovative portfolio focused on energy efficiency, so that homes, companies, or urban projects get connected and enjoy all the advantages of the new era for energy. It attends more than 100,000 clients in 39 municipalities in Valle del Cauca and 47 in Tolima, where it is an energy service operator.
About Colombina
Colombina S.A. is a global company with Colombian capital, leader in food production, with more than 90 years of experience providing their clients around the world with the best products under a comprehensive and transparent management model, capturing them via innovation and their unmatched flavor. Focused on the manufacture and marketing of foods in different lines (candies, cookies, and confectionery, sauces and jellies, ice cream, juices and baby food) with known, high perceived value brands that are available for all.
The Company has important awards such as: promotion to the Bronze Category in the Sustainability Yearbook 2021 as one of the food companies with the best sustainability practices in the world, according to S&P Global; the Golden Hummingbird distinction awarded to the Colombina cookies plant in Cauca for being the first food plant to get certified under the Zero Waste system and fourth place among the food companies in Latin America with best climate change management, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which recently gave a list of companies that show and make public globally their commitment to this matter.