Schoolchildren in Norway are drinking greener milk. That is thanks to a new, environmentally conscious dairy south of the city of Bergen. It was designed to be energy efficient and sustainable with a heat pump and rooftop solar panels. These are saving around 40% electricity.
The owners are TINE dairy company, which belongs to a cooperative of local farmers. They bought a 75,000m² plot of land for the new dairy in February 2010, with a loan of 400 million NOK (€34 million) from the Nordic Investment Bank.
There are various ways in which the dairy aims to be sustainable and circular. Heat from the cold storage is recovered and used to produce steam for the production of dairy products. In addition, excess heat from production will be used for underfloor heating, snow melting and heating water.
The new dairy includes six production lines, which can produce approximately 36.2 million litres of milk, 1.6 million litres of cream, and 5.7 million litres of juice a year. These are distributed directly to shops, schools, and kindergartens in the Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane areas.
The plant includes LED lighting and is equipped with 6,000m² of solar cells, a biofuels filling station for trucks, and charging stations for electric cars.
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