Huge solar system installed
Toyota NZ has installed one of the country’s largest rooftop solar systems on its 35,000m2 warehouse and national customer centre in Palmerston North.
At almost 700-kilowatt capacity, the array is expected to generate the equivalent of 60 per cent of the centre’s power usage and, during peak periods, will inject renewable energy back into the local network to power up to 35 homes.
Toyota NZ selected Singaporean-made panels that have one of the lowest points of degradation. They are expected to still be producing at 90 per cent or more of their total capacity, which is 698.88kW, after 30 years of operation.
Mark Young, chief risk and value-chain officer, says sustainability is a core feature of the purpose-built warehouse and national distribution centre (NDC), which was enlarged to the size of five rugby fields in 2018.
“We’re committed to making a positive impact on the environment and renewable energy is a strong focus,” he adds.
“We’re proud of the solar array going atop the building and the benchmark this will set for future Toyota developments in New Zealand. Already 11 of 63 Toyota stores have installed solar on their roofs.”
Solar-power production capacity from the NDC is expected to generate enough energy to power 132 houses per year and avoid about 93 tonnes of carbon-dioxide emissions annually – equivalent to a RAV4 Hybrid driving the length of New Zealand 481 times.
The forecast solar performance is 921MWh per annum. Based on historical energy-consumption data of the building, the system has an expected payback period of around five-and-a-quarter years.
The scale of the array means Toyota will be generating more electricity from its roof during peak sunshine hours than it needs. On a typical summer’s day, the panels will generate more electricity than the building consumes between 6am and 6pm.
Excess power of some 350MWh will be injected into the local lines network to provide more renewable energy for up to 35 households over the course of a year. In winter, the peak period reduces to 9am-4pm.
Young says installing solar panels in a large scale made strong commercial sense. “While we have made a substantial upfront capital investment, they will reduce the average monthly electricity bill by around 50 per cent. We expect a total return on investment of more than 600 per cent over the life of the panels.”
