BASF – Innovative Floating Solar Panels for Renewable Energy

BASF in McIntosh, Alabama produces chemicals vital to our economy’s sustainability and quality of life. Climate protection is a key pillar of BASF’s sustainability efforts, with a goal to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and reduce absolute carbon dioxide emissions by 25% by 2030.

As part of this ambitious sustainability goal, BASF has installed an innovative proof-of-concept floating solar system at its McIntosh, Alabama manufacturing site. BASF’s plastic additives business collaborated with Noria Energy to develop a highly reliable, entirely new floating solar pontoon racking system and installed the first pilot in BASF’s McIntosh, Alabama site. Floating solar panels are quickly becoming a major contributor to the renewable energy market worldwide, mainly due to the number of benefits they offer when compared to conventional land-based solar systems. This close collaboration allowed them to develop an innovative pontoon design at a lower cost in less than 12 months.  

The impact of this local, innovative project by the employees at the BASF McIntosh facility, is the elimination of approximately 2 metric tons of CO2 per year and the total install capacity of the pilot is the amount of energy needed to fully charge nearly 2.9 million smartphones