The commercial trucking industry's clean energy push isn't only about electrifying vehicles but also related (and necessary) infrastructure, such as dealerships. For Penske Truck Leasing - one of the industry's most important providers of rental truck fleets - that process is well underway.
The company has just opened a brand-new, fully state-of-the-art solar-powered leasing center in Channahon, Illinois, the first of three such planned facilities. The second two, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Linden, New Jersey, will open in the coming months and an unspecified date in 2025, respectively.
The Channahon location, meanwhile, is fully operational. Powered mostly by an onsite photovoltaic (PV) solar system, it's capable of generating about 80% of the buildings required energy at 200 KW capacity. The local utility provider supplies the remaining energy.
[Related: America's largest co-located solar and energy storage project now online]
Thanks to a deal with Sunrock Distributed Generation, seven more Penske facilities in California are slated to be retrofitted with this new system throughout the upcoming year. The facilities, located in Fresno, Hayward, La Mirada, National City, Riverside, San Diego, and San Leandro, are expected to yield a combined 600 KW of renewable energy.
Penske says it's consulting with San Francisco's ForeFront Power for the project, and that four of these solar-powered facilities will generate an estimated 1-million-kilowatt hours of renewable energy annually. All told, this translates to an emissions avoidance of 442 metric tons of CO2 - equal to powering almost 90 homes for a year.
“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.”
