Image: Nissan.
Nissan is set to expand the solar farm at its North East plant by a further 20MW, announcing Engenera Renewables Group as its partner in the project.
The motor manufacturer is working to more than double the amount of renewable energy produced at the Sunderland site, which currently has a capacity of 4.75MW and was installed in 2016. The EPC will work to implement Nissan’s investment, increasing generation from the site – which also includes wind turbines – by 20%.
In March, Nissan first announced it was eyeing the expansion as it looks to become carbon zero by 2050, and electrify all vehicles by 2030. According to Engenera, installing 35,000 solar panels would generate enough electricity to build every Nissan LEAF sold across Europe.
“We are delighted to be working with a company as ambitious and committed to investing in renewable energy as Nissan,” said Lloyd Lawson, Engenera's chief strategy officer. “These plans will help the company take a big step towards becoming completely carbon neutral. We are excited about making these plans a reality.”
Nissan started investing in renewable energy ten years ago, installing the ten wind turbines at the Sunderland site. Since, it has also looked to carve out a niche in domestic renewables, launching a home solar-plus-storage product in 2018 that offered panels provided by Hanwha Q Cells and LG and Nissan's own xStorage battery storage system, which it developed alongside Eaton.