Solar To Produce Up To 22,500 Toyota Auris Hybrid Engines/Year

10 percent of Toyota’s Wales engine plant is now powered by the sun.

Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - Aug 25, 2014



Almost 13,000 PV panels are helping to build efficient engines today.



A large-scale embedded solar array began partially powering Toyota UK’s engine production at its Deeside plant in North Wales last Thursday. The approximately 13,000 solar panels are now providing up to 10 percent of all the electricity required for Auris and Avensis engine manufacturing at the site.



The solar array was built and managed by British Gas under a multi-million-dollar project which will lower energy costs and reduce the site’s carbon emissions. From the first solar panel laid to the last over a period of 3-months, eight football fields of panels were laid and are now live.



Established in 1992 and backed by a total investment of $1.16 billion USD at today’s exchange rate of 1.66 pounds to one USD, the Deeside factory employs 570 producing both gas and hybrid engines for the British market and for export to Toyota production sites around the world.



Toyota’s Burnaston factory in Derbyshire was one of the first when it began producing plant wide electricity production via solar back in 2011 with approximately 5 percent of its needs met by the sun.



Toyota Manufacturing UK Goes Solar



The Deeside and Burnaston solar initiatives are just one part of Toyota’s environmental impact reduction strategy at many of its operations worldwide.

Toyota’s Deeside Wales Engine Production Facility Solar Install – Infographic





The 83 percent efficiency number was made up but the rest is solid.

Although the solar system is supplying just a small fraction of the plants total needs, it demonstrates Toyota’s commitment to a lower carbon footprint while supplying some of the lowest carbon emitting vehicles available today.

Solar To Produce Up To 22,500 Toyota Auris Hybrid Engines/Year