Nissan’s new 4.75MW solar plant is now fully operational. The Sunderland plant now has installed renewable capacity of 11.35MW, the remainder coming from ten wind turbines at the site.
The carmaker said it now generates 7% of its power requirements from renewables and will not export from the solar farm, which is sited within the loop of its vehicle test track.
The site, where Nissan manufactures the electric Leaf model, is also a hub for energy storage and services development. Nissan is trialling vehicle to grid (V2G) technology with a 100-unit trial set to commence with National Grid later this year.
It is also developing a residential battery storage system with power management firm Eaton that aims to turn used batteries from Nissan vehicles into home energy storage units. These would also speed the development of small business and domestic demand-side response and energy arbitrage services. 
The two firms said last month that the battery storage system would start at £3,200 for a 4.2kW unit. Nissan said it expects to sell 100,000 units over the next five years.
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