The largest bottler of the company’s beverages Coca Cola in the world, FEMSA reinforced its betting on renewable energy e installed 940 solar panels of 550 watts each in Mega, its main distribution center for the City and Greater Buenos Aires, which is located in the Central Market. Thus, it will be able to generate electricity and save between 15% and 35% on your energy consumption depending on the time of year.
The investment what happened with 1 million dollars allows Coca-Cola FEMSA to maintain its commitment to the sustainability of its processes and the environment, in a plan that aims to “a world without waste” by 2030.
Meanwhile, the deep Argentina’s economic activity decline in the first months of 2024 caused the bottler’s sales to fall 16.9% year-on-year in volume in the first quarter of the year, from 47.7 million boxes to 39.6 million.
This also meant a 25.9% collapse in revenue equivalent to 2.9 billion to 2.15 billion Mexican pesos (US$ 162.5 to 120.5 million, at today’s exchange rate) between January and March 2024, according to the results report that the firm presented to its investors.
Sales of non-alcoholic beverages nationwide fell 18.3% year-on-year in May and 10.4% in the first five months of the year according to a survey by the consulting firm Scentia.
Coca-Cola FEMSA is 47.2% owned by Mexican capital, while the parent company of the flagship soft drink brand has 27.8%. In Argentina, it has some 63,000 direct customers, 33% of the total market.
Coca-Cola FEMSA’s sustainable commitment
Currently, Coca-Cola FEMSA sources 87% of its operations from renewable energy – when the minimum officially required is 20% by 2025 – thanks to private contracts with the power generator’s wind farms. YPF Lighty seeks to increase that quota to 100%.
The main objective of the photovoltaic solar fields installed in the distribution center by YPF Solar -formerly Sustentator, a photovoltaic and thermal solutions company-, is self-consumption and electricity savings.
According to the company, the solar panels are expected to supply up to 35% of the energy required during the summer, significantly reducing the dependence on non-renewable energy sources such as gas and other fuels.
“Total annual energy savings are expected to be 31%.thus avoiding the emission of 325 tons of CO2 per year. The electrical generation of the panels is equivalent to Electricity consumption of 75 houses in winter and 150 houses in summer giving an annual average supply of 110 homes, considering that on average each one consumes 400 kilowatt-hours per month,” the company explained.
The development of Trina brand solar panels, with Growatt inverters, We started thinking about 2022 and began to be carried out from November 2023In June 2024, the Mega plant had an energy consumption of 190,000 kilowatt-hours per month, mostly to supply the Laser Guided Vehicles (LGV), which are electrically powered robotic forklifts.
Of this electrical demand, 16% was generated by the panels, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day. In summer, solar energy will be available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., so 130% of consumption will be generated during those hours, but the equivalent of 35% will be saved throughout the day and The rest could be sold to the Edenor network with a bidirectional meter.
“We see this as the best solution to overcome the environmental and climate challenges associated with our packaging and operations. Our approach encompasses the entire life cycle of packaging and operations, seeking to reuse, reduce and recycle, as well as mitigate environmental impact,” company sources commented.
In this regard, some of the goals that Coca-Cola FEMSA set at a global level were to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfills to zero, obtain 50% of recycled resin in bottles and recover 100% of the bottles that are dumped on the market.