Lanxess to use green electricity from Verbund at German sites

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess and Verbund, Austria’s leading energy company and one of Europe’s largest producers of hydroelectric power, have signed a contract for the supply of green electricity for the next three years. The agreement ensures a fully sustainable electricity supply with Bavarian hydropower for Lanxess’s German production sites in Bergkamen, Bitterfeld, Brunsbüttel, Mannheim and Wietmarschen.

Verbund will supply Lanxess from 2026 to 2028 with a total of around 200,000 MWh of green electricity from existing hydroelectric power plants on the Inn River in Bavaria, Germany.

Compared to the German electricity mix, this means around 60,000 tonnes less CO2.

Verbund operates a total of 22 run-of-river power plants in Bavaria and on the Bavarian/Austrian border with an installed capacity of 1,040 MW and a generation of 5.9 TWh/a, of which 4.0 TWh/a is for Bavaria.

To strengthen Bavarian energy production, the company has already implemented or is currently implementing projects worth around EUR600 million. In addition, projects worth around EUR1 billion are in the planning or approval stage.

Verbund claims it follows comprehensive measures to protect aquatic ecology, such as ensuring fish passability, implementing comprehensive renaturation measures, preserving natural habitats, and continuously improving water quality. Around EUR100 million have been earmarked for this in Bavaria and along the border until 2030, of which around EUR30 million have already been implemented.

Plus, with planned investments of EUR5.9 billion by 2027, Verbund says it is planning to shape a sustainable energy future. Around EUR400 million will be invested in ecological projects by 2030, with roughly EUR200 million already implemented.

In addition to species protection and fish migration, this requires the preservation of intact ecosystems, consideration of planetary boundaries, and adaptation to climate change.

In addition to climate neutrality in production by 2040, Lanxess says it is pursuing the goal of making the entire upstream and downstream value chain climate neutral by 2050 (Scope 3), for example through products with a low carbon footprint.