Looking Toward An Even Brighter Future

At Takeuchi, we’re fully committed to being good global citizens who contribute to preserving the environment by developing and implementing sustainable technologies wherever and whenever possible. As a publicly traded company in Japan, we started to develop our sustainable development goals in late 2021. Transforming our facilities to be carbon neutral was part of that plan, first in Japan and then in the US. Recently, we put that plan into action by installing energy-efficient solar panels at our facilities in Pendergrass, Georgia and Moore, South Carolina.

“The solar panel systems will produce 2,610,000 kWh annually,” said Angy Lamb, manager of operational services at Takeuchi-US. “That amount will cover about 85 percent of the energy needs at both Takeuchi campuses, and we’ll source the remaining 15 percent as green energy from local electrical suppliers. That will allow our U.S. locations to remain carbon neutral all year round.”

In one year of operation, the combined solar capacity at Takeuchi’s facilities will offset over 2,000 tons of CO². We equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 2,130 acres of US Forests in one year, according to the U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. 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.

“When we started the process, we quickly learned that a solar project of this magnitude takes a lot of time and planning,” said Lamb. “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 in early July.”

The solar panel installation project is just one example of Takeuchi’s commitment to going green. We’ve also converted our main distribution center in Georgia and our plant in South Carolina to energy-efficient LED lighting, and our secondary distribution center is almost entirely illuminated by LEDs. Our three-year-old Training Center was built with all high-efficiency systems, including LED fixtures.

But Takeuchi isn’t stopping there. We’re converting all lighting in our corporate offices over to LED this year.  And next year, we hope to convert the remaining portion of the lighting in our secondary warehouse to LED, which will have a tremendously positive impact on our electric bills.

“One element of Takeuchi’s corporate commitment is cooperation,” said Stewart. “In that commitment, we pledge to ‘thrive in conjunction with society, cultivating a mindset based on harmony and thoughtfulness.’ We put this into action by partnering with the global community and by being good environmental stewards.

“Moving our facilities to a carbon-neutral position helps us live out our commitments and achieve our goals by being a better global partner. We try to take steps that will ensure the long-term success of not only Takeuchi, but also those who work with and around us.”

TAKEUCHI’S SOLAR PANEL INSTALLATION BY THE NUMBERS:

• The total footprint of the solar arrays covers an area larger than 3 football fields.
• The annual energy generated by the PV systems could power 360 homes for a year.
• If all panels were laid end to end, they would stretch out over 5.5 miles.