The New Zealand multinational dairy firm, Fonterra yesterday officially opened Sri Lanka’s first solar-powered milk chilling centre in Hanwella, demonstrating the company’s commitment to sustainable milk collection.

The centre, projected to conserve approximately 22,000 kW every year, featuring 32 solar panels with a 3.24 kW capacity, was officially declared open by Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka.

Speaking at the event, Minister Ranawaka said, “I am happy to see Fonterra opening Sri Lanka’s first solar-powered milk chilling centre — it demonstrates a clear commitment by the company to support the government’s drive towards sustainable milk production in the country.”

“The government is focused on growing the Sri Lankan dairy industry as well as energy sustainability and it is encouraging to see companies like Fonterra investing in modern technology and systems to help conserve energy and further develop milk collection facilities.”

The Fonterra Hanwella chilling centre is one of the nine Fonterra chilling centres located across five districts — Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Kurunegala, Puttalam and Matale.

Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka Managing Director Leon Clement said that Fonterra is committed to working alongside the government and investing in new technology to help develop the dairy sector.

“It is an honour to have Minister Ranawaka here today to officially open our first fully solar-powered chilling centre in Hanwella. “We have been collecting fresh milk in Sri Lanka for more than 15 years and we are committed to collecting and processing this fresh milk sustainably. The solar panel installation at our Hanwella chilling centre allows us to conserve energy and minimize our environmental footprint.

“This is a model project and we are now exploring the possibility of installing this technology across more of our chilling centres across the country,” Clement said. In addition to opening Sri Lanka’s first fully solar-powered chilling centre in Hanwella, Fonterra has also recently installed a number of energy saving initiatives at its milk processing site in Biyagama, which have helped to reduce the site’s annual energy consumption by 40 percent.

Clement added, “These initiatives include installing variable speed drives for powder utility equipment, which consume less energy during operation, fitting sky lights and installing LED lights, which consume less energy than fluorescent lamps.” Fonterra currently collects milk from a network of 4,000 Sri Lankan dairy farmers for processing into fresh dairy products, under the Anchor Newdale brand.