Sourcing 55% of our global electricity consumption from renewable sources has a large positive impact on our carbon footprint and the reductions we’ve made since our commitment to cut it by 40% in the timeframe 2007 – 2015. We have been steadily increasing the portion of electricity coming from renewable sources. To date, Philips has sourced 3,353 GWh low carbon electricity since 2007; equivalent to powering 50,000 households with electricity throughout this period¹. Using low carbon electricity has led to avoided emissions of 1,452,347 metric tonnes CO2-e since 2007; equal to driving a mid-sized family car over 193,000 times around the world.
Philips has installed renewable energy installations at several of its sites. In 2012, we unveiled a 40-story wind turbine to power our lighting manufacturing facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA. This 2-megawatt wind turbine installation in Fall River provides up to 70 percent of the Philips plant’s electricity needs.
In 2014, we installed a ground-mounted 650 kW solar array with 2,000 panels at our Andover office. The solar panels are expected to generate 780,000 kWh annually, covering approximately 5% of the site’s energy consumption.