Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, TVA and New Albany Light, Gas and Water (NALGW) held a ceremony to start up the plant’s new 50 kilowatt solar array.
The Blue Springs plant – mothballed for a period after an initial plant to make the Prius there faltered – employs 2,000 assembling the Corolla.
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Toyota’s solar array is the fourth largest in the state of Mississippi and will generate 50 kilowatts of peak energy, enough to power approximately seven average households for an entire year.
It will optimise performance by tracking the sun’s movement from sunrise to sunset and will lay flat at night in ‘sleep mode’.
The power generated will be redirected back to NALGW which ultimately transfers back into the grid for public use.
The solar panels were installed by Carthage-based Mississippi Solar, which worked closely with Toyota engineers, TVA and NALGW on the project.
Over an 11-year period at Toyota’s 14 North American plants, total cost saving from energy improvements has totalled more than US$330m, and energy use has been reduced by 21% per vehicle produced.
Blue Springs is the most energy efficient Toyota plant on the continent.
Other examples of eco-friendliness there include:
- Waterless grounds irrigation
- Use of geothermal wells to heat and cool areas of the plant
- Advanced recycling programme where waste is divided between compostable and non-compostable
- A unique paint system that uses low pressure atomised water instead of steam, chilled water and paint ovens to control humidity and temperature
