Using solar energy or photo-voltaic systems is an environmentally friendly way of producing electricity which also helps reduce the carbon emissions. Car manufacturer Renault is using this technology to come up with the ‘ World’s largest photo-voltaic system in the auto industry.’ This project will ‘hit two birds with one stone’ for Renault. Not only will they use the system for environmentally friendly purposes, the photo-voltaic panel will act as a shield for the company’s cars before they roll out of the premises, to protect them from natural elements, especially hail.

Renault’s plan is to introduce 40 hectares (equivalent to 400,000 sq. ft.) of photo-voltaic panels at six of its production sites. The locations have been finalized and are the following: Douai, Batilly, Sandouville, Maubeuge, Flins, and Cleon. These would be implemented at the delivery and shipping areas as well as the employee parking lots so they would best utilize their available space.

The panels will be designed to resist natural impacts and are estimated to generate 52,600 MWh of electricity per year. This amount of electricity is enough to support a small town of 15,000 people. This system would reduce carbon emissions by almost 200-tons. The complete plan will be implemented in different phases. To start, 100,000 sq. ft. of panels will be installed at the Valladolid and Palencia plants in Spain and 300,000 sq.ft. will be covered at the Busan site in South Korea, which will be done by the end of this year. The rest of the sites will follow soon after that.