We already knew about Nissan's installation of wind turbines in its Sunderland plant and solar panels in its Barcelona plant. This sort of greening up is, indeed, a good idea, an idea which Toyota is now copying for its engine plant in Flintshire, Wales.

Flintshire County Council is likely to approve Toyota's installation of a temporary wind monitoring mast. The 60-meter mast, at the southern end of the plant site, would monitor wind speeds at various heights over 12 months, to determine the viability of wind power.

The plant already uses osmosis-purified rainwater but saving CO₂ with wind turbines is surely a step ahead: casting, machining and smelting use a lot of energy.

[Source: icWales (thanks Domenick for the tip)]

In an effort to both save some euros off the electricity bill and some CO2 from hitting the environment, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, will install 606 solar panels at its Barcelona (Spain) vehicle plant by the end of this summer. which will cover a surface of 3,000 square-metres and generate 308,000 kWh of electricity per year, which helps them reduce CO2 emissions by 110 tons.

Nissan is also installed a similar layout on its other plant in Spain, in Ávila this summer, 732 solar panels resulting in savings of 267 tons of CO2 emissions every year. But not only Spain is getting renewable energy to power the plants, Nissan is also using renewable energy at its Sunderland vehicle plant in the UK, where it has erected six wind turbines good for 5 percent of the plant's electricity which cuts CO2 emissions by 3,300 tons a year.

These interventions are being held under Nissan's Green Program 2010, which expectations are to lower CO2 emissions 7 percent from 2005 levels.

Related:

• Ford saves CO2 before delivering the car

[Source: Nissan]