Europe’s largest photovoltaic system is being built by carmaker Audi on the rooftops of two of its logistics centres in Hungary. Covering about 160,000 square meters, the plant in Győr will have a peak output of 12 MW and is being built in conjunction with E.ON’s Hungarian business, E.ON Hungaria. Construction work will start in August with energy generation due to begin at the beginning of next year. E.ON will build the park – consisting of 35,000 solar cells – and also operate it, with an annual output of more than 9.5 GWh of electricity. Audi Hungaria chairman Achim Heinfling said the company was “committed to the economical use of resources and therefore want to keep the environmental impact of our production as low as possible. Approximately 70 per cent of Audi Hungaria’s heat requirements are already covered by climate-neutral, geothermal energy. Our goal is to have completely CO2-neutral plant operation in the future. With the construction of the solar-cell park, we are now taking a further step to achieve this in terms of power supply.” Peter Kössler of Production and Logistics at Audi AG, added: “We are working consistently towards greater sustainability along the entire value chain. By 2030, we want all our production sites to be climate neutral. The use of renewable energies is an important lever for this.” E.ON’s Karsten Wildberger said intelligent energy management “is indispensable for companies that want to achieve their sustainability goals. We help customers like Audi to combine climate protection with their business activity – and thus create value for their customers and our society." ........... Energy for commercial and industrial companies will be a key focus of European Utility Week in Paris later this year. Click here for details about the event.
EON and Audi are joining forces to build Europe’s largest PV energy system on the roof of two of the carmakers logistics centres in Gyor, Hungary. The project is part of a €100 million investment by EON, which will see it install more than 1,000 solar panels at its facilities across Europe. Audi’s Hungarian operation, Audi Hungaria, already uses geothermal energy to create almost three quarters of its heating requirements, and chairman Achim Heinfling said it eventually wanted a completely CO2-neutral plant.