ATLANTA, GA — Takeuchi is contributing to environmental preservation by developing and implementing sustainable technologies wherever and whenever possible. Transforming Takeuchi facilities to carbon neutral was part of that plan, first in Japan and then in the U.S. Recently, Takeuchi-US put that plan into action by installing energy-efficient solar panels at its locations in Pendergrass, Georgia, and Moore, South Carolina.
The new solar panels will cover about 85 percent of the energy needs at those two facilities. The remaining 15 percent will be sourced as green energy from local electrical suppliers, allowing Takeuchi’s U.S. locations to remain carbon neutral all year round. To help offset the solar installation project’s costs, Takeuchi will apply for tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act provides for eligible renewable energy projects.
“We quickly learned that a solar project of this magnitude takes a lot of time and planning,” said Angy Lamb, Manager of Operational Services at Takeuchi-US. “We began meeting with solar energy companies in late summer 2022. Each company had to come on site to tour each building and evaluate the roof structures and electrical systems before drawing up preliminary design suggestions and providing estimates. That process alone took several months.”
In March 2023, Takeuchi chose Renu Energy Solutions to install solar panels at both the Georgia and South Carolina facilities. The next project phase involved getting the appropriate permits from local government authorities as well as interconnection agreements with local power companies. Renu took care of those details, and in September 2023, all the necessary panels and hardware were shipped to Pendergrass and Moore. Soon after, Renu began installing the systems with almost no disturbance to business operations other than the final “tie-in,” which requires a building’s power to be shut down while the solar panels are connected to its electrical system.
“The first building to ‘go live’ was our South Carolina office building in February 2024,” said Jeff Stewart, President of Takeuchi-US. “That was quickly followed by our Training Center in Pendergrass, Georgia, and then the manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Finally, the machine distribution center, corporate office, and main distribution center in Pendergrass came online.”
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The solar panel installation project is just one example of Takeuchi’s commitment to going green. The company has also converted its main distribution center in Georgia and plant in South Carolina to energy-efficient LED lighting, and its secondary distribution center is almost entirely illuminated by LEDs. Takeuchi’s three-year-old Training Center in Georgia was built with all high-efficiency systems, including LED fixtures. Later this year, Takeuchi will convert all lighting in its corporate offices over to LED, and in 2025, it will convert the remaining portion of the lighting in its secondary warehouse to LED, greatly reducing its electric bills.
