A Transformational Energy Solution for the 21st Century
Global industry, traditionally powered through the combustion of highly polluting fossil fuels, is undergoing a fundamental energy transformation. This transformation goes beyond a strategic shift towards the adoption of renewables; it represents a completely new energy model that breaks away from centuries of dependence on fossil fuels.
The new sustainable energy model is built around four core principles that are shaping a new energy philosophy that delivers functional resilience, environmental protection, efficiency and profitability.
The core principles of a sustainable energy model:
- Deep integration of electrification
- Material innovation
- Energy efficiency
- Regional resilience
“We believe that the energy revolution will be local, driven by regional resilience and reduced dependency on imported materials. We are proud to play a critical role in creating cleaner, more sustainable energy systems.”
Nimrod Levy
From Emissions Accounting to Energy Architecture
Businesses in all sectors are facing increasing requirements to implement decarbonization strategies and display greater ESG transparency, particularly in relation to energy use. A combination of client expectations, public demand and regulatory mandates is driving a new focus on energy accountability, but many companies still treat emissions reduction as an accounting exercise that involves meeting Scope 1, 2, & 3 emissions targets.
What’s lacking at the corporate level is a realization that there is a unique opportunity to develop a groundbreaking new energy architecture. Companies can transform energy use on a structural level and reconfigure their operations to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving industrial and (and regulatory) ecosystem. Even within the short-to-medium-term future, there will be a clear requirement to redefine how energy is used, stored and sourced across the entire operational spectrum (in every industrial and wider economic sector).
ICL Group has systematically innovated to transform its own energy policies in a way that goes beyond offsetting the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2018, ICL has achieved a full 25% reduction in Scope 1&2 emissions across its global operations. These significant reductions are the result of a comprehensive strategy that is driving an ongoing shift to electrification, renewables, and low-carbon technologies.
Electrify Everything: Process Innovation at Scale
Systematic electrification is the key to effectively decarbonizing heavy industry. It’s an achievable goal – often within a comparatively short timescale and within a viable budget – but the process requires a considerable investment in terms of strategic planning, as well as localization and employee indoctrination and training.
ICL Group is systematically mapping and evaluating its global operations in order to identify processes that can be converted to run on electricity, and to implement a cost effective transition without disrupting existing operations.
The conversion to electrification covers the entire operational spectrum and includes the modernisation or redesign of thermal, gas, and diesel systems to efficient electric-powered alternatives. Electrification extends all the way down to the nuts and bolts of operations, including forklifts and vehicle fleets, drying tunnels, heat pumps, chillers, and compressors.
It’s important to note that electrification does not automatically enable an enterprise to operate on a carbon net zero basis. If the electricity is generated by a fossil fuel burning power station it will still count as a straightforward Scope 2 emission.
Companies need to find electrification solutions within a context of renewable sourcing and grid-smart timing to deliver tangible and meaningful carbon reductions. ICL tackled the problem through its Green Sdom project that developed a hybrid clean energy (mainly solar powered) microgrid to power its major Negev Desert plants.
Energy Efficiency: The Overlooked Power Source
Most companies (and organizations in general) are sitting on unrealized savings that can be readily accessed through energy efficiency initiatives. Achieving energy efficiency – eliminating waste and developing circular economies – remains the cheapest, cleanest, and fastest path to Net Zero. Energy efficiency delivers a host of benefits that include improved ESG ratings, financial savings on an operational level, as well as wider reputational enhancement and commercial viability.
ICL launched over 90 energy efficiency initiatives across its sites in 2023, many of the projects were initiated by ICL staff through employee engagement programs. Companies frequently depend on external expertise and consultancy to achieve energy efficiency, often overlooking the fact that their own employees have detailed practical knowledge of existing systems.
Given structured frameworks for innovation, employees can prove adept at devising innovations like new heat recovery processes, real-time energy analytics, and intelligent ventilation and lighting systems. The takeaway point is that energy efficiency isn’t a retrofit, it’s a dynamic design principle that can harness the expertise of multiple stakeholders.
Renewables in Action: Scaling Clean Inputs
ICL is focused on implementing a global transition to renewable energy. The year 2040 represents a major projected milestone on the road to carbon net zero with an ambitious goal of 50% renewable energy use across all ICL operations. Although the process certainly involves centralised oversight and strategic planning, there is a high emphasis on localization and regional initiatives.
Active initiatives and installations include:
- Energy generating solar rooftops in Israel, Spain, and South America
- Wind and biogas power purchase arrangements (PPAs) in Brazil
- Pilot solar drying technologies.
Regional clean energy strategies that are adapted to meet local needs – and opportunities – deliver optimized and cumulative emissions reductions that align with global Net Zero targets. A flexible decentralized approach that encourages regional initiatives and employee engagement exploits local knowledge and can increase both the scope and pace of energy efficiency measures.
Circular Energy Systems: Closing the Loop
The utility of circular economies goes far beyond material management and recycling initiatives. Circular economies have a major role to play in energy efficiency and integration. ICL is actively exploring how to utilize industrial waste heat (generated through industrial processes) as a resource in its own right, rather than allowing it to naturally dissipate.
Where heat and steam generated as a byproduct of one industrial process can be redirected to facilitate another process, significant financial savings and emission reductions can ensue. This underlying circular thinking extends to several similar initiatives including the integration of recovered phosphorus in battery-grade materials, reducing the GHG impacts across the manufacturing process. Emissions reduction is combined with improved resource security and a reduction in infrastructure pressures.
Conclusion: The New Energy Revolution is Unstoppable
The systematic transition to clean and renewable energy sourcing, and comprehensive energy efficiency isn’t simply about companies obtaining clean kilowatts and achieving Scope 1,2 & 3 emissions targets and favorable ESG ratings. Industry leaders are engaged in a fundamental process of redefining what energy actually means in an advanced Industry 4.0 economy. This represents a profound – game changing – shift in thinking and a break with energy philosophies and practices that go back to the Industrial Revolution of the18th century and beyond.
The ICL model – deliberately designed to be replicable – demonstrates that electrification and circularity are no longer optional in a world that is pushing towards carbon net zero and the increasing integration of green energy sources and technologies within the energy infrastructure. Circularity, energy efficiency and electrification are now prerequisites for sustainability.
If you share ICL’s vision for a sustainable future, and a smart industrial system powered by renewable energy, we want to hear from you. Talk to us today about transforming global energy strategies.
