Last year Toyota UK announced that they were seeking approval for a ground-mounted solar array that will include 17,000 solar panels. Once approved and complete the solar installation will offset about 5% of the electricity demand of its plant in Burnaston and will prevent 45,000 tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere in its lifetime.
Toyota Deputy Managing Director, Tony Walker, commented:
“Using solar power to supply electricity to the plant underlines our commitment to the UK’s low-carbon economy and our own ambitions to further reduce our carbon footprint.”
And now it looks as though Honda and BMW are following suit. Honda has been installing solar power generation systems at its operations in locations around Japan, reaching a total capacity of 3.3 megawatts. Not only that but Honda says it will install 2.6-megawatt Soltec system at its new Yorii Plant, which Honda says will be the largest solar power generation system installed at an auto-mobile facility in Japan.
BMW has also taken the solar path, having recently completed installing 400 solar modules, each with a 240 watt capacity, at BMW’s Manufacturing’s heritage museum and visitor’s center. The $500,000 solar power system provides all the electricity required to run the Museum and will also be powering three new electric vehicle charging stations throughout the main facility.
It looks as though NSW may have the toughest wind farm rules in Australia and worldwide, under a NSW government proposal people who are living within two kilometres of a planned wind farm will have the right to contest. Reported in the Herald, Planning and Infrastructure Minister Brad Hazzard says NSW remains committed to being part of the Federal Government’s 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, despite proposing what he has described as the world’s toughest wind-farm guidelines.