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Block 942,068TL:DR
Rendering of LEGO Group factory in Virginia Image credit: The LEGO Group
The LEGO Group said it plans to build an 80-acre solar park at its $1 billion Chesterfield County, Virginia factory, which is currently under construction and where the company will make its signature plastic bricks.
The company said its total investment in the area is $1.5 billion when including a new $366 million, two million-square-foot regional distribution center in Prince George, Virginia.
The project, which will include more than 30,700 ground-mounted solar panels with a total capacity of 22 megawatt-peak (MWp), should start construction this summer, LEGO officials said. Also planned for the factory complex are 10,080 rooftop solar panels, which will provide an extra 6.11 MWp of capacity.
The solar park, the company said, will help LEGO achieve its goal of having the factory run on 100% renewable energy.
"We're proud of the progress we continue to make," said Jesus Ibañez, general manager of LEGO Manufacturing Virginia.
"These initiatives are key to increasing our use of renewable energy and support our ongoing commitment towards more sustainable operations," Ibañez said.
Other sustainability initiatives related to the new factoryinclude the pursuit of LEED Platinum certification and achieving zero waste from the factory to landfill via reuse,recycling, composting or transport to non-landfill waste-treatment options.
LEGO officially broke ground at the 340-acre Virginia site in 2023 and, in February 2024, announced that it had selected a joint venture between Gray, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, and Richmond, Virginia-based Hourigan, to serve as general contractor for the 1.7-million-square-foot project.
The campus will include 13 buildings, officials said, and, in addition to its precision manufacturing space, will also include areas for offices, molding and packing, an energy center, a high bay automated warehouse and other uses.
This past October, the project reached a major milestone with the topping out of the main production building's steel frame. The campus's office space, which is being built out of mass timber, is expected to top out this spring, LEGO said.
The company expects the factory to open in 2027. The new facility will be LEGO's seventh manufacturing site worldwide and second in the Americas.
My Thoughts 💭My Thoughts 💭
LEGO going all in with solar! In Virginia of all places which doesn’t get the sun that Arizona gets. I wonder if they will have batteries so they can run the campus 24/7.
I expect the price of LEGOs to increase!
While I agree that the price of Lego's will no doubt increase, they are a pretty impressive company. Feels like they've really gotten their second or third (maybe it is fourth by now) wind.
Cries in colorful plastic