Penske Truck Leasing has installed and activated its first-ever rooftop solar-powered systems as part of an initiative seeking to boost efficiency, minimize energy costs, and reduce emissions at select truck leasing, rental, and maintenance locations nationwide.
Its new facility in Channahon, Illinois is now fully operational as the first step of this plan. The site is predominantly powered by a photovoltaic (PV) solar system expected to generate roughly 80% of the building’s energy needs at 200 KW capacity, and any remaining energy needs will be fulfilled by the local utility provider.
A Grand Rapids, Michigan, location will be active in the coming months and Penske’s Linden, New Jersey, location is expected to go online in 2025. The company said that these facilities are all new, state-of-the-art locations, and are part of the company’s goal for new buildings to be LEED certified when possible.
Under a power purchase agreement with Sunrock Distributed Generation, seven additional Penske facilities in California are expected to be retrofitted with new PV solar systems in the next year, which are expected to yield roughly 600 KW of renewable energy across all locations. These facilities are located in Fresno, Hayward, La Mirada, National City, Riverside, San Diego, and San Leandro.
Penske is collaborating with San Francisco-based ForeFront Power as its lead project consultant on this solar initiative.
“Our solar program is an important piece of our renewable energy strategy and ForeFront Power continues to be an outstanding partner in helping us bring these projects to fruition,” said Drew Cullen, senior vice president of fuels and facility services at Penske. “These investments will allow us to directly generate our own renewable energy to power our locations and continue to support our customers with sustainable solutions.”
On average, four solar panel-powered Penske Truck Leasing facilities will generate an estimated 1-million-kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually and will result in an emissions avoidance of 442 metric tons (MT) CO2e, which is equal to powering nearly 90 homes for one year, the company said.
“The initiative to install solar systems at our locations is a part of our company’s LEED-certified facilities process,” explained Ivet Taneva, Penske vice president of environmental affairs. “Investing in solar has considerable economic impacts for our operations as well as the environmental benefits of further reducing emissions related to electricity use.”
