Nissan Sunderland gets new solar farm

Nissan has been given the green light to install an additional 20MW solar farm at its U.K. Sunderland plant, the next milestone for its EV36Zero project and the company's journey to carbon neutrality.

The new 20MW installation, for which planning permission has now been granted, will double the amount of renewable electricity generated at Nissan's Sunderland plant to 20% of the plant's needs - enough to build every 100% electric Nissan Leaf sold in Europe.

Work will begin on the development immediately, and installation alongside the plant's existing wind and solar farms is expected to be complete by May 2022.

The solar farm is being developed and installed by partner company Engenera. Nissan began integrating renewable energy sources in Sunderland in 2005 when the company installed its first wind turbines on site. These 10 turbines contribute 6.6MW power, with the existing 4.75MW solar farm installed in 2016.