Renault Tanger announces eco-friendly factory

The Renault factory at Tangiers in Morocco will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 98 percent and become the first car factory in the world to use renewable energy, a Moroccan minister said Friday.

"Operational in 2012, this factory will be a zero carbon industrial site, with zero liquid industrial waste, thanks to a partnership between Morocco, Renault and the French environmental firm Veolia," Industry Minister Ahmed Chami told a press conference.

The Moroccan national electricity office will also be a partner in the project, officials said.

"The impact on the environment of the Renault factory at Tangiers will be reduced to levels never attained by a chassis-building plant," Renault president for the Euro-Mediterranean region Jacques Chauvet said.

"CO2 emissions will be reduced by 98 percent, which is about 135,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided each year. No water used in the industrial process will be released into the natural environment," he added.

The factory will be electrically powered by renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, as well as hydroelectricity.

The construction plant "will emit no liquid industrial waste and will cut its needs in water by 70 percent," said Minister for Energy and the Environment Amina Benkhadra.

"The Renault factory in Tangiers is going to revolutionise the domain of the automobile industry," Chauvet said.

The Renault Tangiers-Mediterranean industrial complex will begin operations at the start of 2012, with an initial capacity of 170,000 vehicles a year that will be expanded to 400,000 vehicles.