With the official launch of a giant 9.5 megawatt solar system at its Tennessee manufacturing plant, Europe’s car manufacturer Volkswagen can now stake a claim to the single largest solar installation of any automotive manufacturing facility in the US. Designed to produce 13.1 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, the solar park is also Volkswagen’s largest photovoltaic array anywhere in the world.
The new solar field occupies 33 acres and employs more than 3,000 people. Volkswagen builds the Passat mid-size sedan at its Chattanooga assembly plant.
The electricity produced from the solar park is expected to meet 12.5 per cent of the energy needs of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga manufacturing plant during full production and 100 per cent during non-production periods.
VW said it would consume 10 per cent of the electricity generated from the polycrystalline solar modules mounted on a Unirac racking system. Ten SMA inverters will convert the solar energy from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) to be used to power the electrical installations in the manufacturing plant.
Silicon Ranch, which develops and operates solar energy solutions tailored to meet its customers’ needs, will own the solar park and sell the electricity to Volkswagen under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Phoenix Solar provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services in building the solar park over the last six months.
Frank Fischer, CEO and chairman of Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations LLC, said, “We are proud to power up the biggest solar park of any car manufacturer in North America today. The solar park,” he said, “is another proof point of Volkswagen’s worldwide commitment to environmental protection under its ‘Think Blue.”
