SCHUMER: Lowville Kraft-Heinz facility to receive $22 million for clean energy upgrades
LOWVILLE- $22 million from the U.S Bipartisan Infrastructure Law & Inflation Act has been secured for the Lowville Kraft-Heinz Facility to make some major green energy upgrades.
This announcement develops from the office of U.S Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer.
“This is a major win for Lewis County and our Upstate NY’s dairy industry. Lowville’s Kraft Heinz plant has long been the cream of the crop and now the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law and Inflation Reduction Act will help power their transition to clean energy, making sure the North Country facility will have the modern upgrades it needs to remain the ‘big cheese,’ all while creating good paying jobs and fighting climate change,” said Senator Schumer.
“Kraft Heinz is helping make their Lowville plant a national model for how the food industry can transition to clean energy, lower costs, and strengthen operations, all while creating good paying jobs and a greener future. I helped save this plant nearly a decade ago, and promised to keep fighting to help it grow ever since, and now with the federal funding I am delivering today, Lewis County can keep churning out its globally recognized products stamped ‘Made Sustainably in Upstate NY’.”
In total, the U.S Department of Energy is dividing up to $170 million to upgrade 10 different such facilities around the entire country. These upgrades are designed to electrify and decarbonize heating processes at Kraft-Heinz sites across America.
“At Kraft Heinz, we’re on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” said Pedro Navio, President of North America at Kraft Heinz.
“This investment from the U.S. Department of Energy will give us critical resources to make cutting-edge technology improvements in our plants, including our facility in Lowville, NY. Not only will these funds help us lower emissions, they will create local jobs, improve training for our current and future workforce, and better the communities we serve. We'd like to thank Senator Schumer for his leadership and support over the years."
Schumer said this funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will help accelerate the North Country plant’s adoption of clean energy to lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy costs all while creating good-paying construction jobs to strengthen the plant boosting the local economy and environment.
Kraft Heinz’s “Delicious Decarbonization Through Integrated Electrification and Energy Storage Project” specifically aims to upgrade, electrify, and decarbonize its process heat at 10 facilities by applying a range of technologies including heat pumps, electric heaters, and electric boilers in combination with sustainable fuel boilers, solar thermal, solar panels, and thermal energy storage.
Implementing these technologies at each facility is expected to reduce annual emissions by more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, translating to a 99% reduction from 2022 levels for Kraft Heinz, all while helping create hundreds of good paying construction jobs.
At the Lowville Kraft Heinz plant, the funding will replace aging gas and other high carbon emitting technologies with more energy efficient and environmentally friendly alternatives such as heat pumps, electric heaters, and electric boilers. In addition to the Lowville plant in New York, Kraft Heinz will also boost their decarbonization efforts in Champaign, Illinois; Columbia, Missouri; Fremont, Ohio; Holland, Michigan; Kendallville, Indiana; New Ulm, Minnesota; Muscatine, Iowa; Mason City, Iowa; and Winchester, Virginia.
Kraft-Heinz image.
