Nov. 9, 2007 Nissan Motor Co.'s Sunderland plant in the U.K. will add two more turbines to its wind farm later this year, bringing the total number of turbines on the site to eight.

Expected to be fully operational in January 2008, the expanded farm will save Nissan nearly $2 million a year and prevent 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to company estimates.

"Our current turbines are performing well in terms of energy cost reduction, so it makes sense to increase the size of the farm," says Nissan engineer Mike Parkin.

Increasingly, companies operating in the U.K. have turned to on-site wind farms as a means of offsetting rising energy costs. Earlier this month, British Telecom announced plans to install the largest wind farms outside the utility sector and aims to source 25% of its power needs from wind energy by 2016.

Like BT, GlaxoSmithKline, and Ford, Nissan sited its Sunderland wind installation in an industrial area to minimize the impact on the local environment.