The Chatsworth campus, which is home to the NHBB Precision Division, will begin generating energy from the sun in 2021.
MinebeaMitsumi is tapping into southern California’s abundant sunshine by moving ahead with plans to build a 1.4 MW-DC photovoltaic (PV) power facility at its Chatsworth, CA, building complex. The campus is occupied by New Hampshire Ball Bearings, Inc. (NHBB), NMB Technologies Corporation, and NMB (USA). Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2021 and end by midsummer.
The installation will comprise 3,183 solar panels mounted on the building rooftops and new carports in the employee parking lot. The panels chosen for the project are 440-watt crystalline PV modules manufactured by Sharp Energy Solutions Corporation (SESJ), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp Corporation of Osaka, Japan. Sharp has a long history of advancing solar technology as a manufacturer of PV modules since 1963.
The system will generate an estimated 64% of the required energy needs of the Chatsworth campus, which encompasses two large buildings with a total footprint of 148,000 sq. ft. Over 100,000 sq. ft. of this space is devoted to production, while the remainder is dedicated to warehouse and office space. More than 500 employees spread among the three MinebeaMitsumi Group businesses work on the campus.
While the facility is projected to generate savings on electricity in approximately five to six years, it will immediately impact the company’s environmental footprint. With solar power, MinebeaMitsumi can reduce its dependence on energy sources that emit CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. This outcome directly addresses one of the company’s key environmental initiatives: the prevention of global warming.
MinebeaMitsumi recognizes that global warming and the related issues of soaring energy prices and abnormal climatic conditions pose a significant threat to the sustainability of its business activities. To combat this looming crisis, each office and plant in the MinebeaMitsumi Group is proactively promoting energy efficiency initiatives.
Before the Chatsworth solar project, MinebeaMitsumi installed in Thailand: a 1.88 MW, 35,531 sq. ft. solar array at the Lop Buri facility; and a 3.12 MW, 58,970 sq. ft. solar facility at the Bang Pa-in factory.
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of MinebeaMitsumi's acquisition of the Chatsworth campus.