With COP26 underway, two Principal Partners for one of the most important climate summits in recent history have come together to agree a new renewable energy deal.
Hitachi Rail has agreed a contract with ScottishPower for the supply of 100% renewable electricity for their UK operations over the next three years, helping to accelerate the company’s efforts to decarbonise their sites by 2030.
The agreement provides an estimated 21GW of electricity per year for all of Hitachi Rail’s UK maintenance and manufacturing sites.
Jim Brewin, Head of UK & Ireland at Hitachi Rail said: “Today’s agreement to power our UK sites with 100% renewable electricity builds on Hitachi Rail’s progress to decarbonise both our business and the transport sector.
“This partnership with ScottishPower is a major step on Hitachi Rail’s journey to decarbonising our sites by 2030. To do this alongside another COP26 Principal Partner is really special and demonstrates that businesses with shared values and goals can work together to make Net Zero a reality.”
Andrew Ward, CEO Retail at ScottishPower said: “Companies changing how they source energy, whether through Power Purchase Agreements or through top tier Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin certificates like this one, will make a significant difference to the UK achieving its climate change targets.
“In making this change to green, clean electricity companies are also supporting the future growth of renewables across the UK, something which is much needed if the UK is to realise its climate ambition.
“With COP26 now well underway in Glasgow, we’re really pleased to be able to work with our fellow Principal Partner, Hitachi Rail, helping them to take major steps on their own decarbonisation journey and hopefully encouraging other companies to follow suit.”
Hitachi Rail is one of the UK’s major train manufacturers and maintains over 200 trains at depots across England, Wales and Scotland. It’s regional, intercity and high speed trains carry passengers in the South East, South West, the East Coast and throughout Scotland’s Central Belt. Hitachi trains are already playing a significant role in decarbonising transport by replacing previous diesel-only powered fleets.
Hitachi Rail has set itself a target of being carbon neutral at all its sites across the globe by 2030. Last year Hitachi Rail reduced its overall global carbon emissions by more than 30%. Today’s agreement will continue the progress on emissions reduction.
ScottishPower were the first UK integrated energy company to remove fossil fuels from its energy generation, focussing instead on investing in onshore and offshore wind, solar and green hydrogen. They are committed to working with companies to help them reduce their carbon footprint with the ultimate goal of helping the UK achieve Net Zero.
About Hitachi Rail: Hitachi Rail is a fully integrated, global provider of rail solutions across rolling stock, signalling, service & maintenance, digital technology and turnkey solutions. With a presence in 38 countries across six continents and over 12,000 employees, our mission is to contribute to society through the continuous development of superior rail transport solutions. We are proud of our global achievements, from our world famous ‘bullet trains’, to our signalling solutions and turnkey projects, state-of-the-art traffic management and digital solutions. Drawing on the wider Hitachi Group’s market-leading technology and research-and-development capabilities, we strive for industry leading innovations and solutions that can deliver value for customers and sustainable railway systems that benefit wider society.
