Sustainable energy sources for Mercury Marine plants
To manufacture its outboard and inboard engines and their peripherals, Mercury Marine must supply its factories with electricity and other energy sources. In a virtuous logic, the marine engine specialist has launched a broad policy of using renewable energy, mainly solar. Panels have been installed on the manufacturer's factories in the United States -A is, Mexico and Europe. An agreement between the Brunswick Group, owner of Mercury Marine, and Vesper Energy guarantees that Vesper will feed 500 MW of solar energy back into the grid, equivalent to a large part of Brunswick's consumption.
By working on its industrial process, Mercury Marine is also saving energy by recovering the heat produced during the production of cast aluminum engine blocks. This heat is reused to preheat the next batch. This method saves 20% of the natural gas used for aluminum smelting, or 9 billion BTUs per year. In addition, the use of aluminum 100% recycled, for its engine blocks and other components, uses only 5% of the energy required to produce aluminum ingots from virgin bauxite.
Reduce the consumption of buildings and equipment
With strong growth, Mercury Marine is constantly investing in its infrastructure. Particular attention is paid to the energy consumption. The lighting in the renovated buildings is converted to LED and the insulation reinforced for better heating efficiency. Lighting natural are preferred over electric lights.
Installing the latest generation of charging stations for material handling accessories in the EMEA distribution site (Petit-Rechain, Belgium) forklifts and other equipment required 19% less primary energy.
Investments in industrial tools for casting, machining, cuttingâeuros¦ have generated an annual savings of nearly 2.6 million kWh.
Supporting electric mobility
The approach goes beyond the workstation of Mercury Marine employees. It goes by the the provision of a fleet of 30 electric vehicles for employees of the Petit-Rechain site. The loan of a fleet of electric bicycles encourages employees to take up alternative modes of transport.
