Nissan to expand renewable energy generation

Nissan plans a 20MW solar farm extension to add to renewable energy generation at its Sunderland plant in the United Kingdom.

Complementing the plant’s existing wind turbines and solar farm, the proposed 37,000 panel extension would triple renewable energy generation there and result in 20% of the plant’s energy coming from all onsite renewables, enough to build every single zero-emission Nissan Leaf sold in Europe.

“Renewables have already made a big difference to our business and we continue to look for ways to make the manufacturing process more sustainable,” Nissan Sunderland manufacturing vice president Alan Johnson says.  

“As our products made in Sunderland become increasingly electrified, our manufacturing operations are an important part of the ecosystem that will take us to carbon neutrality.”

Nissan installed its first wind turbines at Sunderland in 2005, those 10 turbines contributing 6.6MW power, with the existing 4.75MW solar farm installed in 2016.

The proposed 20MW solar farm extension would take the total output of renewables to 32MW at the plant.

The solar farm is being developed and installed by partner company Engenera with community consultation starting and a full planning application expected to follow later this year.

Nissan aims for carbon neutrality by 2050, with every new Nissan vehicle in key markets to be electrified by the early 2030s, as well as innovations in electrification and manufacturing technology being introduced.

The Leaf was the world’s first mass-market EV, launched more than 10 years ago and today driven by at least 180,000 EV enthusiasts across Europe.

Leaf owners have prevented a massive 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every year, while covering enough kilometres to drive around the Earth 400,000 times.