Hair products Zotos, a subsidiary of Shiseido, could be running what is described as the largest on-site commercial wind technology installation in the United States.
The installation has a capacity of 3.3 megawatts, which is used to power its 670,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Geneva, N.Y. It uses two 1,650-kilowatt wind turbines from Hyundai. The technology provides approximately 60 percent of the plant's electricity needs. The company has contracted to buy up to 9 million kilowatt-hours of green energy in order to make up the difference.
Approximately 30 percent of the funding for the project came from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Zotos. The project has been dubbed the largest of its county, the largest private industrial wind project in New York state, and the largest on-site U.S. installation for a manufacturing company.
Zotos has been in the game of generating on-site green energy for some time. The company shows up on the list of Top 20 On-Site Generation projects by businesses, and local and state governments. That list, which is pulled together by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was updated at the beginning of April. Here's a run-down of who's-who, along with the percentage of overall energy consumption produced by on-site power:
- Kimberly-Clark (8 percent)
- Wal-Mart Stores, California and Texas (4 percent)
- BMW Manufacturing, Greer, S.C. (37 percent)
- U.S. Air Force (< 1 percent)
- City of San Francisco (4 percent)
- Nassau County, N.Y. (15 percent)
- City of San Jose, Calif. (15 percent)
- SC Johnson & Son (14 percent)
- Kohl's Department Stores (2 percent)
- City of San Diego (8 percent)
- City of Portland (8 percent)
- Encina Wastewater Authority (70 percent)
- Adobe Systems (17 percent)
- City of Tulare, Calif. (45 percent)
- Google (< 1 percent)
- Safeway (<1 percent)
- University of Iowa (3 percent)
- Zotos International (50 percent)
- Macy's, California and Hawaii (26 percent)
- University of Minnesota, Morris (57 percent)