Nokian Tyres has equipped its logistics centre in Nokia, Finland with solar power capabilities. The plant consists of 3,160 solar panels with a combined output of more than 1,100 kilowatts (kW). All electricity generated by the solar panels is used by the logistics centre, including to provide lighting and ventilation.
Back at the start of 2018, Netherlands-based tyre wholesaler Heuver achieved energy neutrality through the installation of 1,632 solar panels on the roof of its warehouse in Hardenberg. But Heuver aims to maintain its energy-neutral status even as it grows, and has therefore added a further 1,518 solar panels at the Hardenberg site. Heuver contracted Mijn Energiefabriek, which supplied the original panels two and a half years ago, to install the panels.
As reported last year, under its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is working together with energy supplier Enovos to build two large solar power stations at its testing facilities in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg that will provide clean energy for the local region. The tyre maker has supplied further details of this project, reporting that the stations will take the form of giant carports over the site’s car parks.
Two key agendas influenced Bridgestone’s decision to get involved with the World Solar Challenge (WSC). Alongside a desire to promote sustainability, the tyre maker viewed the event as an opportunity to make contact with young innovators. One such innovator was Lex Hoefsloot, whose team from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands achieved WSC class wins with their Stella solar vehicles on four occasions. These victories became the starting point of a relationship between Hoefsloot and Bridgestone that continues to this day and will see Bridgestone Turanza Eco tyres fitted to the world’s first commercially available long-range solar electric vehicle later this year.
Solar panels installed on the roof of Nokian Tyres’ distribution centre in Vermont, USA have the capacity to more than meet the facility’s entire electricity requirements. The solar equipment’s total annual output is said to be approximately 427,500 kWh, which is 110 per cent of annual usage at the Colchester site. Excess energy will be supplied to the grid.
Heuver Tyrewholesale has gone energy neutral. Thanks to the installation of more than 1,600 solar panels on the roof of its facility in Hardenberg, the Netherlands, a project undertaken as part of the expansion of warehousing space up to 43,000 square metres, the wholesaler’s energy is now supplied in-house. Or on-house, to be precise.
Many companies in Europe are managing to reduce electricity costs in the tyre retreading process, bringing an even greater return to the business and the environment. One example is Select Tyres, located Chelmsford, which currently produces 800 tyres per month and distributes retreaded tyres throughout the UK.
Australian actor and professed car enthusiast Shane Jacobson has signed up to be an ambassador for the 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. In this role he will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the event, which will see 46 teams from 25 countries make the solar-powered journey from Darwin to Adelaide.
The Bridgestone brand will again act as title sponsor of this year’s World Solar Challenge – which will be known, as you’ve already probably guessed, as the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2015. The event will take place in Australia between 18 and 25 October and is the 13th World Solar Challenge since 1987. Bridgestone intends to use the World Solar Challenge as a platform for promoting its ‘Ecopia with ologic’ technology, and the company says it will also engage in associated environmental initiatives and programmes that support young engineers participating in the event.
The solar photovoltaic power station project at Continental’s tyre plant in Hefei, China was officially inaugurated yesterday at a ceremony attended by local government representatives and by Stephan Weil, prime minister of Continental’s home region of Lower Saxony, Germany. Representing the tyre maker at the event was Dr Ralf Cramer, member of Continental’s Executive Board and CEO of Continental China, and Michael Egner, general manager of the Continental site in Hefei. The solar project is being jointly implemented by Continental and HeFei SuMeiDa Sungrow Power Co., Ltd.
