Toyota Adds Solar in Kentucky - Smart Energy Decisions

Industrial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  May 30, 2023

Toyota Adds Solar in Kentucky

Toyota Motor North America Inc.'s operations will be powered by solar in Kentucky, thanks to a new VPPA. 

The automotive manufacturer will offtake 100 megawatts (MW) of the electricity generated as part of Savion Energy'ss Martin County Solar Project.

The project will convert the former Martiki Coal Mine, a brownfield site in Martin County, on the border of Kentucky and West Virginia, into a solar photovoltaic energy facility.  Construction is anticipated to begin in mid-2023 and commercial operation is expected in 2024.

"The Martin County Solar Project in Kentucky is really special as an example of how renewable energy VPPAs can bring new opportunities to former coal and energy communities and will help Toyota achieve our goal of increasing purchased renewable electricity to 45 percent or more of our total purchased electricity by 2025," said David Absher, senior manager of environmental sustainability at Toyota Motor North America in a statement. "It is important that renewable power is more available to large-scale U.S. energy buyers, and converting brownfields like this offers a path forward for former energy communities to take advantage of the infrastructure they already have with transmission lines while providing clean energy to the grid."

The addition of solar power will be used primarily to help reduce the company's carbon footprint in North America. The move is in-line with the company's plans to make all its operations in North America carbon neutral by 2035.





Tags: Savion, toyota

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