Environment

As a renewable energy company, we take our responsibilities to the environment very seriously, both globally and regionally.

By being a player in the global solar energy industry, we are making an important contribution to reducing dependency on fossil fuel and abating carbon dioxide emissions.

In our own business activity, we follow strict processes and procedures to ensure the protection of the local environment around our production facilities.

Our environmental policy is based on the following principles:

• We strive to continuously improve the industrial and ecological safety of our production facilities to be best practice at all times. Dedicated Department of Enviromental Protection within the company to focus on this area;
• We base our environmental policy in scientific fact and we will always prioritise the latest ecologically safer technology;
• We do not operate in the protected areas of nature reserves;
• We promote international cooperation in the development of clean production, energy efficiency and research into the ecological impact of solar energy products;
• We will make the results of our environmental audits public;
• Our contingency planning always reflects environmental priorities, whilst promoting a policy of prevention rather than cure in the first instance;
• In the event of any incident, we are committed to providing full and transparent disclosure  to all stakeholders.
  

Nitol Solar continually invests in improving the facility to meet best practice developments. In the past three years alone, the Company has invested over $5 million specifically on environmental improvements and will continue to do so as the site develops.

Nitol Solar conducts regular monitoring of any impact our production facility has on the environment. The monitoring schedule is approved by the government agency in charge of environment. The environmental monitoring includes:

·         Emissions of any pollutants into the atmosphere at the working places, the industrial area and sanitary-protection belt as well as functioning of the gas-purifying equipment;

·         Discharge of pollutants into hydrographic network and functioning of the sewage system;

·         Discharge of pollutants into the subsurface waters and content of pollutants in subsurface waters under the industrial zone and the adjacent area.

As the figures show, the quality of air shows a consistent improvement, with a steady reduction in pollutants discharge.

Environmental performance of Nitol Solar production facilities

Main ecological indices	Period
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Total air emissions (Mт/year)	14738	14595	9279	9672	9643	6591	5608
Mercury air emission (10-4 mg/m3) MPCs = 3,0*10-4 mg/m3	0.34	0.11	0.20	0.051	0.024	0.001	0.0006
Total wastewater discharge (thousand m3/year)	66171	60336	58126	49552	53234	55163	55372
Mercury emission in the water (Kg/year)	92.9	71.5	62.1	36.0	46.8	37.9	18.0

Practically all parameters impacting environment identified in the course of monitoring are within the range of maximum permissible concentration or maximum permissible discharge, determined for given substances.

Our recent environmental audit results have also been confirmed in independent audits by Environ UK Ltd in November 2007 and by the International Finance Corporation in January 2008.

Budget	year
	2005	2006	2007
US $ thousand	779	2138	2235

The most important environmental projects we invested in were:

·         Improved environmental safety of the slurry tank by reconstruction of its separate elements;

·         Refinement of the scheme of carbonatization of caustic liquors;

·         Refurbishment of the neutralization station;

·         Development of equipment for processing waste from epichlorhydrin production and its implementation;

·         Refurbishment of the system for drying calcium hypochlorite with the installation of a sanitary column;

·         Shipping of waste containing mercury to a specialized company for further processing.

The budget for environmental projects in 2007 has almost tripled since 2005, which has allowed us over the last three years to:

·         Reduce the emission of pollutants into the air by 50%;

·         Reduce the discharge of pollutants to sewage waters by 37%;

·         Reduce volume of hard waste by 30%.

Nitol Solar has introduced ecological management system in line with standard ISO 14001 as well as the health and safety standard OHSAS 18001. In the mid of 2008, the Company implemented  an integrated management system at its plants - “Usolie–Siberian Silicon” and “Usoliekhimprom”.