Green power

Mercedes-Benz procures CO2-free electricity.

Overview Environmental statements of the plants Environmental Check

November 29, 2023 – Since 2022, Mercedes-Benz has been purchasing electricity for its own plants that comes exclusively from renewable sources - i.e. 100 percent green electricity worldwide. In Germany, a green electricity supply contract secures the purchase of electricity from renewable energies at all times. To this end, the company expanded its green electricity portfolio in 2021 together with the energy supplier Enovos and the Norwegian energy producer Statkraft.

Mercedes-Benz is already focusing on CO₂-free power supply

A large proportion of CO₂-free electricity from solar, wind and hydropower is generated in various power plants in Germany. These include a part of a solar park with the size of 60 football pitches near Ingolstadt and nine wind farms. The electricity generated from this is roughly equivalent to the amount consumed by 45,000 households annually. The intelligent mix is supplemented by electricity from flexible hydropower plants.

One of the solar farms to generate the green power for Mercedes-Benz (Photo: Anumar GmbH).
One of the solar farms to generate the green power for Mercedes-Benz (Photo: Anumar GmbH).

Generation of green electricity is synchronised to follow patterns of consumption so that a supply from the grid with green electricity can be guaranteed on a quarter hourly basis. In many previous green power contracts, feed-in to the grid takes place purely on an annual balance basis. With this green electricity concept, Mercedes-Benz is a pioneer in Germany. It enables the construction of the new solar park without subsidies as well as the continued operation of the wind turbines, which would otherwise have fallen out of subsidies under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in 2021. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz was the first major industrial customer in Germany to use a similar concept to ensure the long-term continued operation of six wind farms in northern Germany after the end of the EEG subsidy.

Ambition 2039 and net carbon-neutral production

With Ambition 2039, Mercedes-Benz is pursuing the goal of a fully connected and net carbon-neutral vehicle fleet in 2039 – eleven years earlier than required by EU legislation. The company envisages that more than 50 percent of its passenger car unit sales will be accounted for by plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles by 2030.

An important milestone is net carbon-neutral production in all Mercedes-Benz AG's own plants worldwide as of 2022. The purchase of green electricity is an important part of this. Since 2022, all of Mercedes-Benz AG's own production plants worldwide have been sourcing electricity exclusively from renewable sources.

The company intends to increase the share of renewable energies in the total energy demand of its own production facilities to 70 percent by 2030, not least by expanding local generation capacity. Mercedes-Benz is focusing on the expansion of photovoltaic systems at its own sites: Up to 140-megawatt peak (MWp) are to be installed by 2025. This is equivalent to one million square meters of new solar panels. Another focus of the company's energy strategy is the expansion of its energy portfolio to include wind energy from onshore and offshore wind farms. With the new solar and wind power plants, Mercedes-Benz will cover around 50 percent of its total electricity requirements in Germany in the future.