Toyota West Virginia continues to implement carbon neutral practices and invest in renewable energy in line with the company’s Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, including an agrivoltaic effort. The Challenge calls for all of Toyota Motor North American companies to become carbon neutral by 2035. Toyota West Virginia’s effort include:
- A 6-acre solar array generating 2.6 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power 400 homes and reducing carbon emissions by 1,822 metric tons per year. This $4.9 million investment, implemented in 2021was West Virginia’s largest solar power project at the time.
- Five SmartFlower solar arrays designed in the shape of oversized flowers whose petals open with the morning sun and follow it throughout the day, maximizing exposure; implemented in 2023.
- An agrivoltaic effort in which Toyota works with local farmers who provide sheep that graze under the solar panels, which are low to the ground, to prevent damaging the panels with lawn mowing equipment. Toyota WV is the first Toyota plant to utilize agrivoltaics—simultaneously using land for both agriculture and generating solar energy.
- Smart building technologies to control and optimize systems such as lighting and HVAC, and LED lighting.
- Using wind power from the Black Rock 115 megawatt wind farm in Grant and Mineral Counties.
“A lot of folks this this is simply altruistic, but really it’s not, said David Absher, former senior manager of carbon neutrality and regulatory affairs at TMNA. “This has been good for business”…With agreements and projects coming online over the next couple of years, Toyota is on track to have at least 45 percent of its power supported by renewable energy purchase agreements by March 2026.”
