Around 8,000 solar panels are being installed at facilities in Shanghai and Guangzhou

More than 5,000 solar panels are being installed at AkzoNobel’s Shanghai site

Dutch paint and performance coatings specialist AkzoNobel is finalising the installation of around 8,000 solar panels at its facilities in China – a move designed to accelerate the company’s plans to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.

The panels are being installed at two Decorative Paints plants – more than 5,000 at the Shanghai site and almost 3,000 in Guangzhou.

“Increasing the amount of renewable energy we use is a key part of our People. Planet. Paint. approach to doing business more sustainably,” explains Wijnand Bruinsma, AkzoNobel’s Program Manager for Sustainability.

“The new installations will make an important contribution to our ongoing sustainability achievements in China and will help drive us towards our overall goal of moving to 100% renewable electricity by 2030.”
The new solar systems will become the primary source of power at each location. Now almost fully completed, they will generate around 1.66 million KWh in Shanghai and 1 million KWh in Guangzhou.

“We’re excited to see these two projects successfully come to life,” says Mark Kwok, director of AkzoNobel’s Decorative Paints business in China/North Asia. “Sustainability is at the core of everything we do, whether that means improving the eco-footprint of our sites or addressing the environmental needs of our local customers and communities at large.”

Kwok says plans are also in place to install more solar panels at the company’s manufacturing sites in Changzhou, Langfang and Chengdu. “By installing additional panels at our sites in China, we’ll be able to reduce our energy consumption throughout the entire manufacturing process,” he says.

At the end of 2020, AkzoNobel’s total share of renewable electricity use was 40%, with 34 locations and 12 countries already using 100% renewable electricity.