AGC Glass Hungary, a subsidiary of AGC Automotive Europe located in Hungary, is a manufacturer of side windows, rear wind-shields, and sunroofs for a wide range of automobile brands. E.ON Hungária Group has set up a 4 MWp (megawatt peak) solar farm on AGC’s premises, ensuring a long-term supply of green energy and significantly contributing to the company’s carbon neutrality goals.
This solar farm is located in the Tatabánya-Környe Industrial Park, adjacent to AGC’s Környe-based Hungarian facility. E.ON’s team of experts has installed 8,802 solar panels across 5 hectares of available land, enabling AGC’s solar farm to generate 4.8 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity annually, equivalent to the energy consumption of around 1,900 households. The solar energy collected by 34 inverters, each with a capacity of 100 kW, is converted from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The AC power is then channelled through two on-site transformer stations to provide the glass manufacturing plant with green energy.
The solar farm at AGC’s Hungarian site is the product of a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with E.ON. This innovative project allows E.ON to supply AGC with electricity at a predetermined price, shielded from market fluctuations. This contract between AGC Glass Hungary Kft and E.ON Hungária Group represents Hungary’s first PPA for solar power, in which an energy company installs a solar farm at the customer’s site, ensuring a reliable and enduring source of renewable electricity.
Thanks to this partnership, AGC’s Hungarian facility will reduce its CO2 emissions by 116 to 220 grams per kilowatt-hour through the generation of renewable electricity. AGC incurred no initial expenses for the solar farm, as it is fully funded and operated by E.ON, with remote monitoring of renewable electricity generation handled by E.ON through its operations management centre.
The partnership between E.ON SE, based in Essen, Germany, and AGC Glass Europe, headquartered in Belgium, was established in 2019. Since then, these two major European companies have successfully executed various joint energy efficiency projects across Europe, including recent ones in Seingbouse, France, and multiple sites in the Czech Republic. E.ON and AGC plan to continue their long-term partnership and expand their portfolio of photovoltaic power plants throughout Europe in the future.