Every day is “sun”day at the Toyota Parts Centre
Posted by Colin Hensley on April 13, 2010 in Uncategorized
I was recently lucky enough to be on vacation in the mountains. While I was riding up the mountain on the ski-lift with some friends I noticed that there seemed to be a lot fewer trees affected by acid rain as compared with my recollection of some years ago. If this is true, then I hope it has a lot to do with the wider use of electricity from renewable sources. We believe this is a very important step to take to have a more sustainable business.
It’s for precisely this reason that TME, in partnership with Blue Planet Solar NV have installed an 80,000m² solar panel array on the roof of our parts centre, TPCE, in Diest. This installation is one of the largest thin-film solar panel rooftop installations in Belgium and will produce between 15% & 20% of the annual electricity requirements of the facility, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions and huge savings on the energy bill.
On the 24th March we held an inauguration ceremony where the Flemish Minister for Energy, Ms Freya Van den Bossche symbolically pushed the button to start the collection of energy from the panels. Ms Van den Bossche also joined our partners and the other VIP guests in a trip to the roof to see the 12,800 panels. It was hugely impressive, covering the equivalent of 16 football pitches, the panels just seemed to go on and on as far as you could see. Even here in Belgium, which isn’t noted for it’s sunny climate, the panels should generate somewhere between 15% and 20% of the annual electricity needs of TPCE (the rest of the electricity also comes from renewable sources).
This also means a reduction in the CO2 emissions of about 1700 tonnes/year for TPCE. So now as well as being able to offer lower CO2 cars, we can also address emissions during the rest of the product lifecycle.
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Comments(0)Enjoying clean Swiss air - the show must go on!
Posted by Colin Hensley on March 08, 2009 in 360° approach, Design, Green Technologies
Those of you that follow our Twitter will know that I’m just back from the Geneva Motor Show. We had a very busy time at the show, for a number of reasons. Firstly because the industry is under intense scrutiny at the moment, as we are doing our best to weather a really tough crisis. Secondly, we launched the new Prius into Europe at our event last Monday evening, alongside the new Verso, (C-segment MPV.)
It was great to have a chance to meet Akihiko Otsuka, who is the Chief Engineer of the Prius, and to talk to him about his hopes, aims and anecdotes of when he led the team that developed the car. When I wrote a few weeks ago about the Prius and about the new engine, I couldn’t reveal that the CO2 figure for the combined cycle in Europe is just 89g/km. I also didn’t know all of the efforts that were made in so many areas of engineering the car to do everything to reduce the fuel consumption during real-life driving. I did know the CO2 figure on Monday, and that motivated me to really pick Otsuka-san’s brain. Next week, I’ll write a bit more technical blog on that, but for today I’ll leave you with one little gem. When developing the new Prius, Otsuka-san researched loads of things, even including large ships, which are know for running on highly efficient internal combustion engines. We can learn from everywhere, we just have to be unafraid to look.
