As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, Welsh manufacturer and provider of UK coins, The Royal Mint, has launched its local energy centre, which helps power its 38-acre manufacturing site in Llantrisant with greener electricity.
After launching its daffodil-inspired wind-turbine in 2018, working with its energy partner, Infinite Renewables, the UK’s oldest company has welcomed a new solar farm, an additional wind-turbine, a combined heat and power plant and battery storage, to form The Royal Mint’s Local Energy Centre.
Working towards its goal to become Net Zero by 2050, The Royal Mint is aiming to generate 70% of the power used on-site via its LEC, to reduce its reliance on the national grid. The electricity will be used across The Royal Mint’s operations, including currency production, commemorative coins and its precious metals business, where it produces gold and silver bullion coins and investment bars.
Inga Doak, Head of Sustainability at The Royal Mint, said:
“Sustainability is front and centre in all we do as a business and, working with our energy partner, Infinite Renewables, we’ve established new infrastructure to generate energy that’s local and renewable.
“This is another exciting step in The Royal Mint’s sustainability journey, helping us towards our goal of becoming Net Zero by 2050.”
Leighton John, Head of Operations at The Royal Mint, said:
“The Royal Mint is diversifying as a business and we want to ensure that as we grow and transform for the future, we’re doing so in a way that’s sustainable.
“As we strive towards becoming a leader in sustainable precious metals, this launch is extremely exciting and will act as a cleaner, greener source of energy for a number of innovative business initiatives we’re on the cusp of launching.”
Andrew Crossman, Director at Infinite Renewables, said:
“We are extremely proud to have delivered the Royal Mint Energy Centre. This low carbon Energy Centre is a trail blazing project that shines a light on the future of local, multi-technology generation, whilst providing energy security for the future.”
The local energy centre was opened with a launch event, led by Infinite Renewables at The Royal Mint Experience on 19 July.
In its first full six months of operation (January to June 2023), The Royal Mint’s solar farm alone generated almost 1.1GW of renewable electricity. This equates to the average annual energy consumption of approximately 390 UK households[1].
The centre is made up of advanced technology: a 2MW solar farm, two wind turbines, a hydrogen-ready combined heat and power unit (CHP) and a dual chemistry battery energy storage system (BESS).
The LEC has the potential to produce 17GW of electricity per annum, the average annual energy consumption of approximately 5,862 UK households. There are 4,056 solar panels at the new solar farm and the new wind turbine stands at 89m tall.
The Royal Mint is committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050 and is building on its commitment to sustainability. This year, it will launch its multi-million-pound precious metals recovery plant, extracting precious metals from circuit boards found in mobile phones and laptops and initially using the recovered gold in its 886 by The Royal Mint Jewellery collection.
[1] What is the average annual gas and electricity bill – British Gas
