This food processing company, established in 1986, prides itself in being one of the finest producers of herbs, spices, dried and processed vegetables in the Balkans. It has three production lines and a range of products.
To remain competitive the company needed to significantly reduce its fuel consumption costs. The company sought to replace the natural gas burner used in the energy intensive process of drying of the products.
The company addressed WEBSECLF for financing and technical assistance for the project. The project comprised the purchase and installation of two biomas boilers for the total capacity of 4 MW.
The WeBSECLF team analysed the investment measures, in particular the potential energy savings, the financial-technical parameters of the project and its risks.
The €1,431,000 investment generates energy cost savings of €431,100 per year, which means that the investment will be repaid out of energy savings only in just 2.8 years.
The savings arise from the switch from expensive natural gas to its own energy source – biomass bails from the company’s own fields. Even though the operational and maintenance costs related to biomass are higher than those related to natural gas utilisation, the project is still highly profitable.
What is more important, by developing its own renewable energy source, the company became independent and more resistant to energy price fluctuations in the market. In addition, it solved the issue of utilisation of its own waste and decreased CO2 emissions by 3,000 tonnes per year, making a valuable input to the mitigation of the negative effects of human activity on the climate.