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All industrial activity requires energy. ICL’s Energy consumption is both direct and indirect. Direct energy is energy produced by fuel combustion, mainly used to operate steam boilers, electricity generators and similar installations at ICL production sites, as well as fuel for vehicles. Indirect energy use is mainly via our purchase of electricity and steam from external suppliers.
There are two types of energy sources: non-renewable energy, which is derived from fossil fuels, and renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, solar and wind. Energy derived from non-renewable fossil fuels contributes to emissions of both health-related air pollutants, as well as greenhouse gases.
In the past decade, ICL has undertaken a major transition of it’s fossil fuels usage. In the past, the company relied mostly on highly polluting fuels such as fuel oil, diesel and oil shales. These have now been almost completely replaced by natural gas, which is a cleaner fuel.
In addition, as part of its sustainability vision, ICL has recently set a target of increasing, from 2% to 40% by 2040, the consumption of renewable energy, using 2018 as the baseline. Almost all ICL Europe sites transitioned to 100% renewable electricity during 2019-20. More sites, in the Americas, are expected to transition to renewable energy in the next few years as well. The Company also plans to install PV solar energy capacity in several global sites. Currently, 21% of the global ICL indirect energy consumption in 2020 was derived from renewable sources.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GJ (millions) | 35.3 | 34.4 | 31.5 |
In 2020, approximately 10% of energy consumed by ICL’s energy is electricity purchased from the grid. 3.3% of ICL’s consumed energy is sourced from renewable energy.
Note: In the charts below, 2018 appears as the base year used by ICL to measure its long-term performance (in addition to short-term, year by year performance).
As ICL’s new Sdom CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant came into full use, there was an increase in the fuels (direct energy) that ICL consumes. At the same time there was also a significant decrease in the amount of external electricity (indirect energy) that the Company consumes. The new plant commenced operations in August 2018.
There was an increase in ICL’s total energy consumption, as the new Sdom power plant became fully operational. ICL’s direct energy consumption increased by 38% between 2019 and 2017. The difference between 2018 and 2020 is less than 1%. Direct energy consumption decreased by 7% between 2019 to 2020. 2020 should not be regarded, at this point, as a typical year due to COVID-19.
Indirect energy decreased by 18% between 2017 and 2020. It has decreased by 4% between 2018 (baseline) to 2020.
The new Sdom CHP plant is supplying most of the electricity demand for all ICL’s Israeli sites, and thus replacing previously purchased external electricity in ICL Israel. The plant also supplies ICL Sdom various facilities with all needed steam.
A significant amount of electricity from the new plant is also sold by ICL to the Israeli national grid and external customers (an overall of 559K MWh in 2020, approx. 30% of the plant’s produced electricity). In accordance with the GRI methodology, the amount of electricity sold to the Israeli national grid was subtracted from ICL’s total energy figures.
ICL strives to continuously improve energy efficiency and to decrease our emissions by increasing our use of clean and renewable energy.
Due to ICL’s transition to Natural Gas, 92% of the total remote fuel consumption of ICL Global facilities in 2020 was derived from NG (compared to only 26% in 2008, pre-transition). This transition was a major cause in reducing emissions such as NOx, PM and GHG’s. Natural Gas consumption has increased significantly in 2018-9 due to the sharp increase in its consumption to produce electricity and steam in the new Sdom CHP plant (including a significant amount of electricity that is now sold to external customers).
