Solar Efficient Yamaha

In addition to saving energy costs, the switch to solar power will assist with Yamaha Motor Corporation's plans to be a carbon-neutral company by 2050, not only in the emissions of its products but also in its business activities worldwide.

Planning the long-term goal of Yamaha Motor becoming a carbon-neutral company, differs from a net zero-carbon strategy. While Yamaha reduces its emissions globally, initiatives to offset these reduced emissions are being designed to reach the carbon-neutral milestone by 2050.

Being carbon-neutral does not mean there are plans for Yamaha to phase out the internal combustion engine. At the recent announcement of a collaboration between Yamaha Motor and automotive manufacturer Toyota to produce a hydrogen-powered V8 engine, President Yoshihiro Hidaka made it clear that Yamaha retains its strong passion for the internal combustion engine.

Installing the new energy system at Wetherill Park took the team of Origin Energy technicians and engineers just six weeks to complete.  A 100KW system has been installed onto the YFS building, and a 200KW system onto the YMA building. More than 600 high-efficiency solar panels and associated infrastructure were lifted into place, along with nine power inverters to convert the clean and free energy provided by the sun into electricity that now powers the office and warehouse buildings. Even during periods of less-then-ideal weather the new system will drastically reduce power reliance from the grid. 

Tom Okamoto, Managing Director Yamaha Motor Australia praised the sun-powered system when it came online in January.

"More than ever there is an expectation for companies such as ours to develop strategies that will tackle important environmental issues,” he said. “Projects such as the installation of solar panels contribute to the Yamaha Motor 2050 carbon-neutral target as well as its goal of a sustainable society."

To reduce the carbon footprint of the solar project further, it was decided not to install battery banks to store excess energy produced by the system. That’s not to say energy will be lost; when the solar panels are producing more power than being consumed, the excess will be fed back into the grid for others to use. 

Using historical records of the power usage for the YFS and YMA buildings, Origin Energy was able to chart an estimate of the significant contribution the new solar panels will make over a 12-month period.

Future plans to further reduce our emissions include upgrading YMA’s fleet of LPG-powered forklifts to electric models.