Jaguar goes solar at engine plant

Jaguar Land Rover installs UK's largest rooftop solar panel array at its Engine Manufacturing Centre in South Staffordshire. Photo / Supplied

Jaguar Land Rover has completed the installation of the UK's largest rooftop solar panel array at its new state-of-the art Engine Manufacturing Centre at i54 South Staffordshire.

The new facility (above) has been designed with sustainability embedded throughout and has been awarded BREEAM's "Excellent" rating for the design stage of the assessment for sustainable buildings.

More than 21,000 photovoltaic panels, with a capacity of 5.8MW, have been fixed to the roof of the Engine Manufacturing Centre, with plans to increase this to over 6.3MW by the end of the year. It is estimated that the system will generate more than 30 per cent of the centre's energy requirements. This is the equivalent to the energy needed to power more than 1600 homes. The photovoltaic panels will reduce the plant's CO2 footprint by over 2400 tonnes a year.

Trevor Leeks, the centre's operations director, said, "Our world-class facility showcases the latest sustainable technologies and innovations. The completion of the UK's largest rooftop solar panel installation is just one example.

"As the first manufacturer to win the Responsible Business of the Year last year, environmental innovation lies at the heart of Jaguar Land Rover's business."

Based at the heart of the UK, the state-of-the-art Engine Manufacturing Centre is the first new plant Jaguar Land Rover has built from the ground up. The site represents an investment of more than £500 million ($965 million) and will create almost 1400 new jobs by the time the plant reaches full capacity.

The plant will manufacture the first family of premium, advanced-technology engines, Ingenium, to be entirely designed and built in-house by Jaguar Land Rover for exclusive use in the company's future vehicles.

The Jaguar XE, debuting in 2015, will be the first vehicle equipped with these four-cylinder engines.