Penske Truck Leasing has installed and activated its first-ever rooftop solar-powered systems at certain of its truck leasing, truck rental, and truck maintenance locations in the U.S.

The company tells us its new facility in Channahon, Ill., is now fully operational, and is predominantly powered by an onsite photovoltaic (PV) solar system, expected to generate roughly 80% of the building’s energy needs at 200 KW capacity. Any remaining required energy will be supplied by the local utility provider, Penske said.

A Grand Rapids, Mich., location will be active in the coming months, according to Penske, which added that another location in Linden, N.J., is expected to go online in 2025. The company said those facilities, along with the Channahon, Ill. building, are also state-of-the-art locations that, are part of its LEED building program.

Under a power purchase agreement with Sunrock Distributed Generation, Penske expects seven additional facilities in California to be retrofitted with new PV solar systems in the next year, which it expects to yield roughly 600 KW of renewable energy across all locations. Penske said these facilities are located in Fresno, Hayward, La Mirada, National City, Riverside, San Diego and San Leandro. Additionally, the company said it is collaborating with San Francisco-based ForeFront Power as its lead project consultant on this solar initiative.

“Our solar program is an important piece of our renewable energy strategy and ForeFront Power continues to be an outstanding partner in helping us bring these projects to fruition,” said Drew Cullen, senior vice president of fuels and facility services at Penske. “These investments will allow us to directly generate our own renewable energy to power our locations and continue to support our customers with sustainable solutions.”  

According to the company, the four solar panel-powered Penske Truck Leasing facilities will, on average, generate an estimated 1-million-kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually and will result in an emissions avoidance of 442 metric tons (MT) CO2e. Penske said that’s equal to powering nearly 90 homes for one year.

“The initiative to install solar systems at our locations is a part of our company’s LEED-certified facilities process,” explained Ivet Taneva, Penske vice president of environmental affairs. “Investing in solar has considerable economic impacts for our operations as well as the environmental benefits of further reducing emissions related to electricity use.”