Canada: TransAlta Corporation has secured a contract to supply 100Gwh/yr of wind power to Lafarge Canada’s Exshaw, Alberta. The power will cover an estimated 25% of the plant’s electricity needs.

Lafarge Western Canada’s head of sustainability and environment Cailee Ellis said “This agreement, first of its kind for Lafarge in Alberta, is an important step to utilising higher amounts of renewable electricity at our facilities.”

Kenya: Bamburi Cement has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Momnai Energy to set up two solar plants. One 14.5MW unit will be situated next to its integrated Mombasa plant and the other 5MW unit by its Nairobi grinding plant. This will account for up to approximately 40% of the cement producer’s total power supply. Construction of the solar power plants is scheduled to begin end of 2022, after requisite regulatory approvals with expected completion within a year.

“We are elated to be making this step towards switching to more affordable and clean energy that will not only lead to a significant reduction in power costs but also bring us closer to our goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions,” said Miriam Ngolo, Bamburi Cement’s Strategy and Business Development Director.

Other recent sustainability work by the subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim has included substituting heavy fuels with alternative fuels like biomass, including rice husks, and other waste material such as waste tyres and waste oil in its operations.

Togo: Cimenterie de la Côte ouest-africaine’s (CimCo) new 2.5Mt/yr grinding plant in Lomé is preparing to produce its first cement in March 2022. Germany-based Intercem Engineering says that construction work has been completed on the project and that the cladding is in place. Currently, the cold commissioning is in progress. The plant will operate as a subsidiary of CimMetal Group.

Colombia: Cement production grew by 16% year-on-year to 13.8Mt in 2021 from 11.8Mt in 2020. Data from DANE, the Colombian statistics authority reports that despatches rose by a similar rate to 13.0Mt from 11.2Mt.