the plant of Volkswagen Spain in Figueruelasof the group Stellaris, inaugurated this Thursday the second phase of the “most ambitious self-consumption electricity project in Spain”, a new installation -located in the southern part of the plant- with 15,600 new photovoltaic modules that extend over an area of 76,000 square meters, with an installed power of 8.01 MV. These figures, added to those of the first phase, represent 163,000 square meters covered by 34,800 solar panels, with which the production center has the capacity to develop 16.65 MW of photovoltaic energy.
In this way, almost a third of the energy consumed by the plant each year will come from renewable sources, a percentage that will increase to 80% when the company has fully deployed a plan that will come to fruition until the end of 2023 and which will include the installation of mills to generate wind energy, as announced by Manuel Munárriz, general manager of the plant.
Until recently, energy represented 5% of the cost of manufacturing vehicles at the Stellantis factory in Zaragoza, a percentage that was multiplied by 5 due to the notable increase in electricity and gas prices motivated by the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this scenario, the company’s commitment to reducing these expenses has become an imperative and an opportunity to carry out actions that contribute to reducing costs.
10 years ago, the consumption of energy in the factory, it was equivalent to that recorded by 40,000 households, but this consumption has been reduced to 50% thanks to the adoption of numerous energy efficiency measures. The company’s idea is to continue working in this direction, all the more so after having suffered from the rise in energy prices caused by the war in ukraine.
“In Zaragoza we have the advantage of having space next to the factory and weather conditions that represent an advantage for the installation of renewable energies”, emphasized Manuel Munárriz, who On the other hand, he highlighted the positive moment that the plant is going through in recent months because it has not had to stop production for lack of components. The plant still does not fully recover the night shift, but operates at full capacity with morning and afternoon shifts active on both production lines (Corsa and Crossland and Citroën C3 Aircross), while night has the ability to assemble vehicles from a single line. or another.
The CEO of Stellantis Zaragoza also caught the eye on the ramp-up of the Press warehouse of the factory, since in addition to supplying large parts to the Figueruelas factory, in addition to that of Madrid, it sends smaller parts to many of the group’s factories, both in Europe and in America from South.
Ignacio Cortés, Head of Energy Transformation Projects at the Figueruelas plant, highlighted the fact that with the two phases of the photovoltaic park almost a third of the energy consumed each year by the plant will come from this clean and renewable source. In total, according to company sources, 4,126.27 tonnes of CO2 will not be emitted into the atmosphere, i.e. the equivalent of 25,300 trees, approximately the sum of the vegetation of two green lungs of the city of Zaragoza: the Grande José Antonio Labordeta Park and the pine forests of Venice.
herds in the park
Stellantis is developing the electricity self-consumption project of the Figueruelas power plant in close collaboration with the Prosolia Energy and the involvement of a team in which he also participates Angela Gutierrezdirective of the car manufacturer focused on environmental and energy actions, which also mentioned the agreement concluded by the company with shepherds who will take their flock to the region to graze and thus promote a circular economy action.
Munárriz and his team members visited the photovoltaic park and then moved to the Power plant of the Stellantis facilities in Figueruelas, a center where work is carried out to guarantee the supply of energy and water to the various warehouses of the factory (those for presses, bodywork, paints and final finishes). In her ramiro martinezits manager, underlined the improvement in efficiency of 20 to 25% obtained with the start-up of the cogeneration plant in 1992 and underlined the current desire to take measures which, he said, will allow achieve full decarbonization in 3 or 3 4 years.