Cooler Planet

Last week Toyota Motor Sales USA announced that it had completed installing a vast solar electric array on top of one of its parts plants in Ontario, California.  The 242,000 square foot array could cover over four football fields, but instead is the largest single-roof installation in North America.  The mega building houses the 2.3-megawatt system, comprised of 10,417 solar modules, will generate over 3.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.   

According to the Toyota company press release, the facility uses nearly 6 million kilowatt-hours of power on an annual basis.  The new solar PV array should meet 60 percent of the facility’s electricity needs.  Toyota admits that its electricity costs per kilowatt-hour have increased 266 percent since 1992 and although conservation efforts have reduced the facility’s usage nearly 30 percent over the last 5 years a solar photovoltaic array will considerably offset the company’s need to purchase electricity.

Toyota plans to start using the array in October once the commissioning process is completed.  1n 2003, Toyota erected a 53,000 square foot photovoltaic system on its South Campus Headquarters in Torrance, California.

Toyota’s proactive efforts to use photovoltaic systems and to develop solar power technologies for its vehicles are part of the company’s Earth Charter.  The company’s Earth Charter encourages the company to integrate sustainable and renewable practices into all aspects of its design, manufacturing, business, and sales operations.   According to the company’s 2007 annual report Toyota has set a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a “20 percent GHG reduction per sales unit by 2010, against a 2001 baseline.”  It has also established a target of reducing its total energy use in its manufacturing processes by 27 percent for each vehicle produced by 2011 (as compared to 2002).

The solar installation in Ontario, CA should advance them toward their objective.  In the press release issued by the company, the 2.3-megawatt system will avoid 6.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually, “equivalent to the energy use of 255 homes in a year.”