Fortum is building clean energy and improving air quality in India

Fortum is building solar power in India

Fortum launched its operations in India in 2012, and right from the start the focus has been on solar energy. The new 250-MW solar power plant, Pavagada 2, was commissioned in August 2019. The Pavagada 2 solar power plant is included in the scope of sustainability reporting in 2019. Additionally, a new 250-MW solar power plant is estimated to start production in Rajasthan state in late 2020. In the India operations, Fortum applies a business model based on capital recycling which enables continuous investments in the building of new, renewable capacity. At the end of 2019, Fortum operated a total of 435 MW of solar power capacity in India. India’s solar power plants are susceptible to sand dust, and they traditionally use water to clean the solar panels. This is a challenge in India where acute water shortage prevails in many places. Fortum has started to use robotic waterless cleaning solutions. By the end of 2019, 54% of the solar panels are cleaned with a robotic waterless cleaning method, and the aim is to increase the share to 90% by the end of 2020.

Fortum eNext supplies nitrogen oxide reduction solutions in India

Fortum eNext

Fortum exports combustion technology solutions to India to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx). Specialising in reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency, Fortum eNext signed in June 2019 its first commercial project with Hindalco Industries Limited, one of Asia’s biggest producers of primary aluminium. The project enables the power plant to comply with the tightened restrictions on NOx emissions in India and to keep its emissions clearly below the permitted emission limits. With the Fortum eNext solution, the power plant boiler’s annual nitrogen oxide emissions will decrease by 60%, which means 1,500 tonnes less NOx emissions per year per boiler. The main goal of the combustion technology developed by Fortum since the early 1990s is to significantly reduce the generation of NOx emissions in the combustion process primarily with burner modification. The solution also improves power plant efficiency through optimisation of the boiler, which improves energy efficiency. By the end of 2019, the solution had reduced a total of 800,000 tons of customers’ NOx emissions in seven European countries.

Fortum Bio2X a refiner of bamboo and paddy straw

Fortum Bio2X Fortum has biorefining-related research projects in India. In north-east India, a joint venture owned by Fortum, the Indian state-owned oil refining company Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and the Finnish biorefining company Chempolis is establishing a biorefinery to produce bioethanol, furfural, acetic acid and electricity from bamboo. The refinery is part of Fortum’s Bio2X research and development programme that is developing the refining of agro biomasses and residues into highvalue products. The plant’s basic planning is nearing completion, and procurement of the main equipment is under way. The plant is estimated to start production in 2022. Raw material sourcing chain, including sustainable bamboo harvesting, aims to have a positive impact on the livelihood of the local communities. In September 2019, Fortum signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on paddy straw research collaboration with India’s CCS Haryana Agricultural University. The goal is to produce straw-based textile fibres and other chemicals and materials for use in the food, forage, construction and other industries. The longer term goal is to establish a biorefinery using paddy straw as raw material.

Fortum Charge & drive electrifying transportation to India

Fortum Charge and Drive The Indian government is pursuing electrification of transportation. Fortum is supporting the effort by developing an EV charging network in India for traditional electric vehicles and for three-wheeled vehicles. Currently Fortum has 67 charging stations in five Indian cities: Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Fortum’s collaboration with the Swedish Clean Motion company offers an innovative battery swap service for three-wheeled vehicles. The service enables drivers to exchange a discharged battery for a new, charged battery in less than three minutes. The main target groups of the service are major taxi companies and other organisations operating large fleets of vehicles. Fortum also provides other Indian electricity charging station operators an opportunity to manage their infrastructure with a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) platform.