Audi has announced plans to install a giant solar power system on the roofs of two logistics centres at its plant in Hungary.

Covering around 160,000m², the project at Győr will consist of 35,000 panels with a total capacity of 12MW.

The car manufacturer has partnered with energy company E.ON for the project, which will generate more than 9.5GWh of electricity a year – equivalent to the power needs of around 5,000 households.

It is also expected to help reduce around 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The project is part of Audi’s ambition to ensure all its production sites is climate neutral by 2030.

Achim Heinfling, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi Hungaria said: “We are committed to the economical use of resources and therefore want to keep the environmental impact of our production as low as possible. Approximately 70% of Audi Hungaria’s heat requirements are already covered by climate-neutral, geothermal energy.

“Our goal is to have completely CO2 neutral plan operation in the future. With the construction of the solar cell park, we are now taking a further step to achieve this in terms of power supply.”

Construction is expected to start in August this year and renewable energy generation is scheduled for the start of 2020.