One of Europe’s leading energy producers has ramped up the pressure on itself to deliver fossil-free living to its customers… within a generation.

Formed in 1909 as Kungliga Vattenfallsstyrelsen, Vattenfall AB is a Swedish, state-owned multinational power company that, as well as in Sweden, generates and supplies power across Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and even here in the United Kingdom.

Headquartered in Solna, near Stockholm, Vattenfall has recently shifted its focus away from traditional energy sources, divesting lignite operations and shutting down several of its hard-coal assets across Sweden. In doing so, the company has successfully limited its carbon emissions to around ten million tonnes per annum.

Vattenfall has also committed to Net Zero across its full value chain by 2040, simultaneously setting a target of halving the emissions of its suppliers of goods and services. Furthermore, the company is beginning to work in tandem with its key partners, in order to oil the wheels of change regarding the de-carbonisation of the European energy industry. The anticipated result of this will be that, moving forward, customers living in Vattenfall’s key European markets – including Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and here in the United Kingdom – will be in the position to adopt and embrace clean, recycled, and fossil-free ways of heating and powering their homes.

At its Uppsala site – named ‘Carpe Futurum’ – located in eastern Sweden, Vattenfall is successfully substituting its raw fuel sources for more environmentally reponsible alternatives; changing from peat to pellets and biomass materials (wood and agricultural residues) for its plant operations, and moving away from regular oil in favour of bio-oil for all oil-fired units. Additionally, the company – which owns and operates the largest onshore wind farm in England and Wales (located at Pen y Cymoedd near Neath in South Wales) – is also actively developing and integrating new heating sources into its day-to-day processes, such as e-boilers (power-to-heat), geothermal and even waste energy.

Vattenfall envisions the Carpe Futurum facility cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 200,000 tons per year, but this is just part of the company’s highly ambitious drive to helping realise a fossil-free future. There are also initial investigations being made into the viability of electrofuel for sustainable air travel, in partnership with SAS, Shell and LanzaTech. Named ‘HySkies’, this project centres on the development of a new, purpose-built facility to produce electrofuel from carbon dioxide collected from Vattenfall’s waste-to-energy plants, as well as recycled fuels. These will be liquified, then mixed with hydrogen to create ethanol, before being refined to produce sustainable fuel to help support the worldwide aviation industry’s green transition… and, indeed, its own.

Committed to helping drive change in global energy management

Here at Turner & Coates, we are experienced providers of high quality inspection, auditing and expediting services to the oil, gas and petro-chemical industries. What’s more, we are steadfastly committed to playing our part in the global drive towards effectively cutting fossil-fuel usage, and supporting the development of new, sustainable technologies.

The Quality Management (QM) systems we deliver and audit are highly efficient, focused and tailored to a company’s specific requirements. Multiple QM standards within any business – regardless of the industry or sector in which it operates – should ideally form one coherent, fully integrated system, in order to ensure its ongoing, up-to-the-minute compliance with the latest legislation, standards, processes and procedures.

Here at Turner & Coates, our approach to achieving the level of seamless integration required involves the removal of any duplication or outdated practices, thereby ensuring the standard(s) in question – whether combined or stand-alone – become(s) integral to the day-to-day running of the business or organization concerned.

Furthermore, we ensure that all Quality Management systems and standards are routinely and accurately documented, in order to achieve consistency of operation, stimulate ongoing quality improvements, enhance customer satisfaction and create a more productive, co-operative and fluid working environment. Obviously, a company must be able to operate its own QM system once implemented. Indeed, self-ownership is key to any system’s continued success and, here at Turner & Coates, we can help achieve this through a combination of training, education and auditing.

We benefit from a proven track record in working across a diverse selection of industries – including oil, gas and petro-chemicals – and our experienced team of consultants travel all over the world to help implement and regulate QM systems, teach internal auditing techniques and even conduct mock assessments to progress systems to optimum levels of awareness and usage.

What’s more, we can also carry out bespoke audit and assessment services for companies requiring suppliers to comply with their own standards, as well as acting as an independent and impartial auditor to companies who want suppliers to be assessed.

It’s all part of our contribution to driving change in global energy management.

Turner & Coates – excellence as standard!