On Friday, AstraZeneca held a ceremony entitled Newark Flips the Switch” at its manufacturing site south of Newark.
AstraZeneca leadership and elected officials marked the installation of 7,800 solar panels spanning 9.5 acres to power building operations and reduce site utility spending by 20 to 30%.
A release stated that by generating 5.8 million kilowatts of energy a year with the panels, AstraZeneca affirmed its commitment to sustainable manufacturing and environmental responsibility.
AstraZeneca has been a pioneer in the use of solar panels and had the technology installed at a portion of its office campus near Wilmington.
Last year, AstraZeneca announced a collaboration with Vanguard Renewables to enable the delivery of renewable natural gas to all of its U.S. sites by the end of 2026. The gas is generated from dairy farms using digester systems and is fed into the nation’s gas pipeline system.
The Newark site was the first designated site to receive renewable natural gas since the announcement of the collaboration.
The Newark AstraZeneca state-of-the-art facility formulates, packs, tests and distributes 30 medicines, a number that continues to increase each year, and is one of two main distribution centers in the U.S.
It’s the only Delaware manufacturing site with Energy Star certification.
