French car manufacturer, Renault, is about to start building the automotive world’s largest solar roof project that will eventually span the space of 63 football fields. The company is constructing the giant solar array in parts — pieces of the project will be located at six of its French plants — and will generate 60 megawatts of energy when completed. In total, the project will cut Renaults CO2 emissions by 30,000 tons a year.
The project is made up of mostly solar roofs, which will cover the shipping facilities at the company’s Douai, Maubeuge, Flins, Batilly and Sandouville locations. There will also be solar array covers at the staff parking lots at Maubeuge and Cléon (shown above). The energy produced by the project is equivalent to the energy used by a town of 15,000 people every year.
Renault is partnering with Gestamp Solar on the project which will commence construction in June of this year and is projected to be finished by February 2012. Renault is pushing forward into the zero-emissions world already with its line of zero-emissions vehicles — the four vehicle line is currently on a tour of France promoting a green driving lifestyle. The company plans to cut its overall emissions by 10% by 2013 and by a further 10% between 2013 and 2016 — with this new solar project up and running next year, that shouldn’t be a hard goal to meet.
+ Renault
