German premium carmaker BMW and electricity distributor E.ON Hungaria have signed a cooperation agreement on building a 50-hectare solar farm near the future factory in Debrecen, eastern Hungary, the companies announced on April 10.

BMW is building a €1bn vehicle plant and a €1bn battery plant in Hungary's fastest-growing industrial hub, home to several automotive suppliers. Chinese CATL is building Europe’s largest EV battery factory from €7.4bn in the city.

The company laid the cornerstone of the vehicle manufacturing plant at the base in the summer of 2022, which will be completed in 2025. Production is slated to start in November 2025.

The 43 MW farm will consist of 320,000 sqm solar panels, of which 187,000 sqm will be installed on the roofs of the factory buildings and the rest on the ground.

Chairman and CEO Hans-Peter Kemser of BMW Manufacturing Hungary said the largest photovoltaic system of the BMW Group will be established in the factory, one of the largest such investments in Hungary.

The farm will produce energy equal to meet the annual needs of 20,000 households. 

Mayor Laszlo Papp said the city council is exploring the option of implementing geothermal energy connections in the industrial zone

Hungary is slated to use a large portion of the RRF funds pending their arrival on modernising and expanding its grid to cope with the surge in the feed-in from renewables.