OAK HILL — GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare officials announced Wednesday that their Greene County-based facility completed its solar panel project, near the Oak Hill site.
GlaxoSmithKline’s East Durham plant manufactures such oral health care brands as Sensodyne, Pronamel and Paradontax for markets in the United States and Canada. The solar project consists of more than 17,000 panels, with an estimated electricity generation capacity of 6.9 megawatts. A person contacted at GlaxoSmithKline in East Durham refused to comment or discuss the cost of the project.
The Oak Hill project is the London-based pharmaceutical giant’s 12th solar investment. The project was done in partnership with Ameresco, a cleantech integrator that specializes in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Ameresco was founded in 2000. The company has more than 1,000 employees and provides local expertise in the United States, Canada and Europe.
“In order to form a more sustainable world, we need to work collaboratively with major corporations to implement energy-efficient solutions,” Ameresco Senior Vice President Pete Christakis said Thursday. “I’m so thankful that we were able to work with an organization like GSK Consumer Healthcare, that has set forth aggressive goals for its future and truly understands the need to implement renewable technologies at a grand scale.”
The comprehensive solar panel project is designed to generate electricity equivalent to more than 70% of the Oak Hill site's annual usage and reduce its carbon footprint by 60%.
Mike Allen, GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Sustainability Lead Consumer Health Supply Chain said, “The completion of this project marks a pivotal moment for us at GSK Consumer Healthcare, as a continued step in the right direction for enacting real change that reduces our environmental impact and helps us deliver on our larger sustainability initiatives. We plan to implement additional major solar and wind energy investments in the UK and US to set us on track for 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”