Grupo Bimbo To Power Its Plant Using Wind Energy

Food Industry  Including major bakery manufacturers have been trying various renewable energy source such as  Solar energy , Bio mass and other alternative energy  to conserve and reduce cost .Grupo Bimbo  is exploring to harness wind energy  to get power for its factories . With this  step it has set  an example other major food  manufacturers to adopt wind energy for sustainable growth .

A report

Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V. has begun construction on "Piedra Larga," which is expected to be the largest wind farm in the food industry, generating nearly 100 per cent of the electrical power at Grupo Bimbo in Mexico.
According to Grupo Bimbo, the wind farm, which will be located in Union Hidalgo, State of Oaxaca,will have installed capacity of 90 mega watts, and will be able to supply power to 65 of the company's facilities.
Grupo Bimbo also has invited Grupo Calidra, Frialsa Frigorificos and Papalote Museo del Nino to participate in the project.
"The construction of this wind farm is a milestone in our effort to continue growing with the force of nature, making us the first company in the food industry to embrace the transformation to renewable energy," said Daniel Servitje, chief executive officer of Grupo Bimbo. "It represents an unprecedented effort in the use of renewable, clean and virtually endless energy: green energy."
Mr. Servitje continued, "Grupo Bimbo continuously seeks to reduce its environmental footprint, and as such it operates under the highest performance standards. This is an effort we have undertaken for 10 years and is gaining greater importance within our five axes of environmental sustainability: energy conservation, water conservation, emissions reduction, waste management and corporate social responsibility.

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Grupo Bimbo to build largest wind farm in the industry

Indian Bakeries Opting For Solar Energy

With  cost of  fuel and power   increasing day by day  Indian bakeries  are looking for alternative  energy  solutions to cut down their fuel as well as electric energy  cost . Fuels used in bakeries are LDO /HSD/CNG/LPG/Furnace Oil /Electricity .

All bakeries requires hot water to clean the utensils used in production process as fat is a major ingredients in bakery product .Utilities run on these fuel  for  heating water  are  Hot water generators , Boilers or Hot water geysers .  Even at large bakeries the employees canteen consumes large amount of  hot water for  utensil cleaning . Solar water heating  gives these bakery an alternative source energy  for heating water and  reducing cost of fuel .Temperature attained for such applications could be between 55deg C - 60 deg C

The payback period for such investment  could be something between 18 -24 months depending upon the consumption .Many companies like Britannia has installed solar water heating  system  for its  hot water requirement .The most popular supplier of such system is  Tata -BP  Solar India Ltd .

Other application for usage of  solar energy  for the larger bakeries have been  the  lighting   around  the factory  through photo voltaic s cells .

Major advantage of solar energy are

• Lower maintenance cost 
• Clean environment 
• Available in abundance  all around the year excepts for some region 
• Save energy cost  by reducing either fuel or electricity cost . 
• No storage space required for  fuel .No logistics 

Here is a line diagram for  such arrangement