NINA - Kimberly-Clark Corporation 126 N. Commercial St. 414 installed solar panels on the roof of the pilot plant or X-Mill
This is the first rooftop solar system in Nina's business district.
The company says the system will generate 195 megawatt hours of renewable electricity annually.
This is enough to power the X-Mill, which accounts for 4% of the plant's total electricity consumption. This corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of 26 houses.
Additionally, the solar panels will reduce Kimberly-Clark's annual greenhouse gas emissions by 134 tons as the company works toward its sustainability goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030.
Costs of the system and possible repayment terms have not been disclosed. The Kimberly-Clark Focus on Energy project saved about $85,000 through business incentives and federal tax credits.
Scott Nelson, Kimberly-Clark's senior research and development manager and head of the X-Mill facility, told The Post-Crescent that "it's not about cost savings, costs or returns." "It's really more about reducing our overall carbon footprint."
CONTACT: Renewable energy projects are taking off in the Fox City
CONTACT: Appleton's new library will have geothermal wells and solar panels to reduce its carbon footprint.
As Kimberly-Clark approaches its 150th anniversary in business, the X-Mill is well worth the investment. X-Mill has been in operation since 1924 and is located on the same site where the company's original facility opened on October 22, 1872.
"This is the only property we've owned since it was first built," said Jessica Latchen, general manager of exteriors for Kimberly-Clark. "It's very special to us and very special to the community, and this property and this plant is still operating and improvements are being made here in the Neenah community that will last a lot longer."
The story continues
More than 250 product tests are conducted at the X-Mill each year to support innovation in Kimberly-Clark products such as Kleenex and Cottonelle.
Nelson says the X-Mill employs 26 people, but up to 80 people will be on site on any given day when researchers are conducting experiments and testing processes or products.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DukeBehnke.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM. Our customers make it possible. Click postcrescent.com/subscribe to view the Postcrescent feature and download our app from the App Store or Google Play.
This article originally appeared in the Appleton Post-Crescent. Kimberly-Clark installed a solar system on the roof of the X-Mill in Nina.
