Cosmetics maker L’Oréal and Scenic Hill Solar, a Little Rock-based solar energy company started by former Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, cut the ribbon this morning on a new power generating solar array in North Little Rock.
The array, featuring 3,600 panels and covering 8 acres, will provide L’Oréal’s 450,000 square foot factory — which produces cosmetics for brands including Maybelline, L’Oréal Paris, Essie and Lancôme — with 1.3 megawatts of renewable energy, and reduce carbon emissions related to the plant by 556 metric tons per year. The project is Arkansas’s third largest commercial solar array. Each panel is mounted on single-axis system that allows it to automatically follow the movement of the sun across the sky.
The project was announced last September, along with a second project by L’Oréal and Scenic Hill Solar which will install 4,140 solar panels on the roof of L’Oréal’s 686,000 square foot hair care products plant in Florence, Kentucky. Both solar projects are part of a company-wide plan that aims to help L’Oréal meet its goal of utilizing 100 percent renewable energy at its U.S. manufacturing facilities.