Nick Carey

LONDON, (Reuters) – Japanese automaker Nissan (OTC) announced Wednesday that it received permission to construct a 20 megawatt solar farm at the plant in Northeast England. This will generate sufficient power to produce every Leaf fully-electric car sold in Europe.

Nissan announced that construction will start immediately and finish by May 2022. Nissan Sunderland’s new solar farm will generate 20% of the plant’s renewable electricity. It will also double its production.

Nissan announced in July that it will spend one billion pounds (or $1.33 billion) to construct a battery station with Envision AESC, its Chinese partner. This plant will be able to power up 100,000 vehicles per year including a brand new crossover.

Nissan announced earlier this week that it would spend 2 trillion Japanese yen ($17.64billion) in five years to speed up vehicle electrification, to catch up to its competitors in an area of high growth for carmakers.

($1 = 113.4100 yen)

($1 = 0.7509 pounds)