Electricity is set to replace one thousand coal trucks in Southland

It's part of Meridian Energy's programme to help de-carbonise industrial process heat in the South Island.

A2 Milk Company is decommissioning a coal-fired boiler at its Mataura Valley Milk plant, and Alliance Group is doing the same at its plant near Invercargill.

That will reduce the combined carbon emissions by 47-thousand tonnes per year.

Meridian Chief Executive Neal Barclay says this sets the path for other primary export industries to end their fossil fuel dependence.

He says these new agreements will see the programme exceed its original reduction target of 100-thousand tonnes per year.