Mars candy company wants to power all 37 of its factories with wind

The Mars candy company, in partnership with Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, announced an agreement on a new 200 MW wind farm that will generate 100% of the electricity needs of Mars’ U.S. operations, which is comprised of 70 sites, including 37 factories and 25,000 associates. Mesquite Creek Wind, a 118-turbine wind farm was jointly developed by Sumitomo and BNB Renewable Energy and is based near Lamesa, Texas with a footprint of 25,000 acres.

The giant candy and pet food maker MARS Inc has taken a big step in the right direction by announcing that it will soon begin construction of a massive wind farm in Texas that will produce enough clean energy to power all of MARS’ operations in the United States (they have 37 factories and 70 offices, so it’s a pretty big deal). This is one of many steps that the company has been taking as part of its ‘sustainable in a generation’ plan. The wind farm will be erected near Lamesa, Texas, with 118 GE wind turbines (1.7MW each) producing annually about 800,000 megawatt-hours, equivalent to what it takes to power 61,000 U.S. households. This will be enough for MARS’ 37 US factories, and represent about 24% of their global factory and office carbon footprint. Hopefully they keep rapidly improving that number and reach 100% before their target date.