Dive Brief:
- Cargill Inc. is teaming up with Tesla to cut operating costs at its beef processing plant in Fresno, CA.
- Cargill is using Tesla's 1-megawatt batteries to charge and store electricity during off-peak hours and then using whatever electricity the company was able to store for peak-hour operations.
- Cargill expects to save about $100,000 per year.
Dive Insight:
This isn't the first sustainable technology Cargill has tested at this Fresno plant. Cargill installed a solar water heating system on the roof of the plant's main building, which cut both costs and the company's use of natural gas. Before that, Cargill began using a methane gas recovery system for its wastewater pond to utilize greenhouse gases as a fuel source and keep them from entering the atmosphere. The facility also has a water use reduction plan in place.
Jon Nash, Cargill’s beef plant general manager at Fresno, said, “We understand that while we produce nourishing protein for millions of people on the West Coast, it is important for us to do so as responsibly as possible. Proper stewardship of the resources required to produce food is crucial to the ongoing success of our business and is important to current and future generations as the world’s population increases from more than 7 billion people today to more than 9 billion in 2050.”