Nissan has outlined a major expansion of its renewable energy plans in the North East after a solar power scheme won planning permission.
The company has been given approval for an an additional 20MW solar farm near its Sunderland 海角视频 plant which will double the amount of renewable electricity it generates, covering 20% of the site’s needs.
Work will begin on the development immediately, and installation alongside the plant’s existing wind and solar farms is expected to be complete by next May.
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But the company said it will also add up to nine more solar farms as part of a plan to generate enough renewable energy to power the production of more electric vehicles and the batteries to run them being made by battery partner Envision AESC.
The moves come just a few days after Nissan’s global bosses announced Ambition 2030, in which the plan for renewable energy production in Sunderland will replicated at plants in Japan, China and the US.
Alan Johnson, vice president manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland, said: “We have been using renewable sources on-site for more than 15 years. The expansion of our solar farm is an integral part of the Nissan EV36Zero project and the company’s journey to carbon neutrality.”
As well as more solar farms, Nissan is working with Sunderland City Council on a new renewable energy ‘microgrid’ that will take renewable energy from solar and wind power generated on the site, but also includes plans for a 1MW battery storage system using second-life batteries from Nissan electric vehicles. The storage facilities will allow Nissan to use solar power generated during daylight hours to be used at different times to balance demand.
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Nissan will work with Newcastle firm Engenera on developing its renewable energy plans.
The company started integrating renewable energy sources in Sunderland in 2005 when it installed its first wind turbines on site. The 10 turbines contribute 6.6MW power, with an existing 4.75MW solar farm added in 2016.
Nissan wants to be carbon neutral across the life cycle of its products by 2050 and this week its global executives said they would spend more than £13bn on developing electric vehicles, with the aim of having half of its global output to be made up of EVs by 2030.
The company also released more detail about the crossover electric vehicle it will be producing in Sunderland. It issued concept images of what is currently dubbed the Nissan Chill-Out – although that will not be its real name – calling it a “mobile haven”.