OREANDA-NEWS. MAN’s first CO2 neutral commercial vehicle plant is now a reality. The Company has gone an important step in implementing its Climate Strategy by using only renewable energies at the MAN Truck & Bus production site in Pinetown, South Africa. A huge photovoltaic system has been installed with solar panels on 6,300 sqm of the production hall roofs. This system can generate up to 810,000 kWh per year and supplies enough environmentally friendly energy on site to even leave a surplus that is fed into the local power grid. This measure alone reduces MAN’s CO2 emissions in production by 860 tons per year.

Specialists thoroughly revamped the hall roofs before installing the photovoltaic system. Skylights were built in wherever feasible to use as much daylight as possible. In addition, modern insulation makes sure that air conditioning consumes as little energy as possible. Rainwater tanks were set up to have an environmentally friendly vehicle wash on site. Wastewater is recycled.

“The CO2 neutral plant in Pinetown is a great success for implementing our Climate Strategy and proves that we mean business when it comes to climate protection. This project is the benchmark for sustainable commercial vehicles production in Africa,” says Dr. Georg Pachta-Reyhofen, Chief Executive Officer of MAN SE.

MAN has set itself the target of cutting CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020 compared with 2008. This target is now within reach. Up to the end of 2014 MAN already saved 19% which equals around 105,000 tons in CO2.