JOHANNESBURG, South Africa & PARIS, France – Today, ahead of the global Earth Hour event, Nissan announced its support of a South African boarding school near Pretoria with the installation of a sustainable energy system leveraging the power of Nissan Intelligent Mobility technology.
As part of its commitment to furthering the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, Nissan has been working with Filadelfia School to improve its access to reliable electricity and increase its use of renewable energy. While the national grid provides energy access to 85% of the population, capacity and connection constraints in South Africa mean the school regularly experiences unscheduled energy "blackouts". As a boarding school attended exclusively by over 400 disabled students aged between 14-21, Filadelfia School is particularly sensitive to such disruptive events. Using a combination of second-life batteries from Nissan LEAF vehicles and solar panels, the school now has a sustainable energy system that helps mitigate the impact of electricity shortages on the school community.
"We have several energy outages a month, usually for a few hours, but sometimes for a full day" says Filadelfia School Principal Mr. Derrick Peete. "Daily operations like using PCs, brail printing for our visually impaired students, or simply cooking become troublesome in the face of energy blackouts. So reliable access to electricity is vital to us" he added.
Part of its mission to create a "cleaner, safer, fairer" world, Nissan is addressing the issue of energy resilience through a variety of pilot projects around the world. Earth Hour, an annual global event organized by WWF since 2007, aims to unify people behind the idea of saving the Earth through symbolically switching off their lights and taking action on climate change.
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About Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, INFINITI and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2017, the company sold 5.77 million vehicles globally, generating revenue of 11.9 trillion yen. On April 1, 2017, the company embarked on Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, a six-year plan targeting a 30% increase in annualized revenues to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal 2022, along with cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen. As part of Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, the company plans to extend its leadership in electric vehicles, symbolized by the world's best-selling all-electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, manages operations in six regions: Asia & Oceania; Africa, the Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America; and North America. Nissan has partnered with French manufacturer Renault since 1999 and acquired a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors in 2016. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sold 10.76 million vehicles combined in calendar year 2018.
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Francois Crisias
Tel. +33 (0)172676006
fcrisias@nissan-europe.com
