Nissan is to double the size of the solar energy farm at its huge Sunderland factory – and, once complete, it will generate 20 percent of the plant’s needs.
This will be enough to build every Nissan Leaf electric car per year using fully renewable energy.
Pre-pandemic, around 43,000 Leaf EVs were made at Sunderland.
Work on the giant 20MW installation is already underway and it is expected to be complete by May 2022.
It will complement Nissan’s existing solar and wind farms.
“We have been using renewable sources on-site for more than 15 years,” said Nissan Sunderland manufacturing VP Alan Johnson.
“The expansion of our solar farm is an integral part of the Nissan EV36Zero project and the company’s journey to carbon neutrality.”
Sunderland goes green
The Sunderland project is the first of 10 planned by the Japanese giant – to which an initial £1bn has been committed by Nissan, its partners, and Sunderland City Council.
The Nissan EV36Zero project is the firm’s ambition to build a “flagship EV hub creating a world-first EV manufacturing ecosystem”. It will be centred around the Sunderland, UK factory.
The project will bring together electric vehicles, renewable energy and battery production; it will, says the firm, “set a blueprint for the future of the automotive industry”.
It has been praised by UK PM Boris Johnson, who called it “a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly-skilled workers in the North East.
“Commitments like these exemplify our ability to create hundreds of green jobs and boost British industry, whist also allowing people to travel in an affordable and sustainable way so we can eliminate our contributions to climate change.”
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