E.ON to build Europe’s largest solar energy system, in Hungary

Utility giant E.ON has announced plans to build Europe’s largest photovoltaic system on the rooftops of two Audi logistic centres in Győr, Hungary.

E.ON will build the park, consisting of 35,000 solar cells covering about 160,000 square meters, and also operate it, with an annual output of more than 9.5 GWh of electricity. This amount of energy corresponds to the annual energy used by 5,000 households and the green electricity generated from the renewable source will emit 6,000 tonnes less of carbon dioxide.

“Intelligent energy management is indispensable for companies that want to achieve their sustainability goals. We help customers like Audi to combine climate protection with their business activity – and thus create value for their customers and our society,” said E.ON’s Karsten Wildberger.

Audi Hungaria has set ambitious targets for environmental protection, including reducing total energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, water use and waste. Today, 99.5 per cent of the company’s waste is recycled and significant progress has been made in other areas.

“The company is committed to the economical use of resources and therefore want to keep the environmental impact of our production as low as possible,” said Achim Heinfling, chairman of Audi Hungaria. “Approximately 70 per cent of Audi Hungaria’s heat requirements are already covered by climate-neutral, geothermal energy. Our goal is to have completely CO2-neutral plant operation in the future. With the construction of the solar-cell park, we are now taking a further step to achieve this in terms of power supply.”