Toyota turns to solar to boost power at 3 plants, including West Virginia's facility in Buffalo

Once built, Toyota’s solar array in Buffalo will be the largest in the state, according to Jacob Plasters, senior engineering manager for the Buffalo plant.

“We’re very proud to be the largest solar field in West Virginia,” Plasters said. “It’s a big investment. It shows Toyota’s commitment to this plant and West Virginia.”

Plasters said the 6-acre field is expected to be online by March 21 and generate about 2.6 megawatts of energy.

“That’s about 10% of our peak usage,” Plasters said.

The solar panel field is a $4.9 million investment that is expected to reduce CO2 emissions at the plant by 1,822 metric tons annually. The effort is part of Toyota’s Global Challenge 2050, which aims to eliminate the company’s carbon footprint by that year.

“This project aligned with Toyota’s global challenge to reduce our carbon footprint, not only in our vehicles, but in the manufacturing of those vehicles,” Plasters said.

The Buffalo plant had already implemented more environmentally friendly changes, using all LED lighting as well as a building management system.

Plasters explained that Toyota employs a Japanese philosophy called “kaizen” which translates to the goal of continuous improvement.

Implementing these changes, and adding solar power to the production facility, is part of that strategy and is cost-effective.

“We’ve studied it, and the payback did make it a viable project,” Plasters said of the solar field. He also said the company owns more land so additional solar panel fields would be possible.

Established in 1996, the Buffalo plant employs about 1,700 employees and manufactures nearly one million engines and transmissions for the Toyota Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Rav4 and Lexus ES and RX350. Additionally, in June 2020 TMMWV became the first Toyota facility in North America to begin producing hybrid transaxles, which are built for the Highlander and Sienna.

Toyota is adding a total of 10.8 acres of new solar installations at the company’s plants in Alabama, Missouri and West Virginia.

The solar arrays will offset 6,480,000 kWh of energy, which the company says is the equivalent of powering nearly 800 homes per year.

The company will spend about $9.3 million to generate 4.95 megawatts of energy. The new installations will also reduce CO2 emissions at the plants by 4,304 metric tons annually.

“Toyota continuously looks for new ways to reduce water usage, recycle materials and conserve energy, and we are proud to add solar panels to our lineup of best practices,” said Kevin Bell, TMNA Energy Manager. “We are committed to setting an example of sustainability to show how a company can significantly reduce the environmental impact of its operations.”

Toyota’s investment in solar in general, and especially in West Virginia, drew praise for solar energy advocate Autumn Long of Mount Nebo, a regional field manager for Solar United Neighbors.

“It proves that renewable energy can play a power generation role for businesses and manufacturing,” Long said.

“Solar is a massive growth industry,” Long said. “It is a great opportunity for good-paying jobs.”

Long also said Toyota’s and other major companies’ commitment validates the efforts to expand solar’s role in power generation.

“Increasingly, you’re seeing more and more companies like Toyota that want renewable energy resources to be available to them,” Long said.

“West Virginia needs to do a lot more to encourage and support renewable energy” as an economic development tool.

As part of Toyota’s Environmental Challenge 2050, the company has already installed solar panels at plants in Texas and Mississippi. The goal is to “eliminate all carbon emissions from manufacturing by the middle of the century,” according to the company’s press release.

Toyota Motor Corporation issued the Challenge as a set of six goals with a target of achieving beyond zero environmental impact. Toyota is one of the top 20 corporate users of installed onsite solar capacity in the U.S., according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.