New Solar Park at Alstom's Mátranovák Factory

French multinational rolling stock manufacturer Alstom is greening the electricity consumption of its Mátranovák factory (NE Hungary)  with a 1.5-megawatt solar park. In an investment that will replace 23% of the factory's annual electricity demand with green electricity, experts will install 6,600 square meters of solar panels, the company said in a statement sent to MTI on Wednesday.

According to the information provided, the solar panels will provide 1,600-1,700 megawatt hours of green electricity per year for the factory, saving the environment from 617 tons of harmful emissions annually.

The company notes that it began manufacturing bogie frames for metro and railway trains at its Mátranovák factory four decades ago. The products manufactured in Mátranovák can be found in numerous types of trains throughout Europe: in conventional and high-speed trains, suburban trains, locomotives, and double-decker railway carriages.

Alstom is a key player in Hungarian rail transport and has been present in Hungary for more than 20 years. It is one of the country's largest suppliers of metro trains, having manufactured 50% of the Budapest metro trains for lines 2 and 4, the latter of which are the first driverless metros in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, MÁV operates 25 Traxx locomotives in its own fleet, and several other leased Alstom electric locomotives run in Hungary. The company has also modernized MÁV-Start's 59 electric multiple units with the latest ETCS L2 train control system, which allows these trains to run more safely and efficiently on Hungarian railways than before, Alstom said.