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    Chaberton Energy Installing 24-Acre Solar Array at Steel Tubing Maker’s Chicago Manufacturing Site

    Jan. 10, 2025
    The solar installation will cover close to one million square feet, or slightly more of half of Maruichi Leavitt Pipe & Tube's corporate campus footprint. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 282,000 metric tons.
    Image credit ID 10603262 © Iurii Kryvenko | Dreamstime.com
    67813563caf3d0948935d33c Steeel Tubing Dreamstime

    Steel tubing manufacturer Maruichi Leavitt Pipe & Tube is welcoming an on-site solar power plant to its corporate campus in Chicago.

    "This solar installation represents a critical milestone in our sustainability goals," said Shunsaku Honda, President, at Maruichi Leavitt Pipe & Tube, in a statement. "The solar array will reduce our carbon footprint and control electric costs while demonstrating our commitment to supporting local community energy needs."

    The company selected Chaberton Energy to install the solar capacity on the 44-acre campus. The project will both serve on-site energy needs for Maruichi Leavitt Pipe & Tube but also grant access and generate revenue through a subscription-based community solar program for the surrounding area.

    "This project exemplifies how industrial solar installations can simultaneously benefit a company's operations, support local communities, and contribute to environmental sustainability,” said Matthew Stavis, vice president of development at Chaberton Energy, said in a statement.

    The solar installation will cover close to one million square feet, or slightly more of half of the company’s corporate campus footprint.

    The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 282,000 metric tons, equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by planting 4.7 million trees, throughout its expected multi-decade lifespan.

    Maruichi Leavitt Pipe & Tube began producing steel tubing in 1956 and operates five tubing mills on its Chicago campus.

    Many industrial and commercial companies are beginning to install on-site solar as a means to decarbonize some of their operations. In December, refinery giant Phillips 66 revealed plans to work with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources to install a 30-MW solar farm at its renewable natural gas refinery along the San Francisco Bay.

    Toyota also announced complete of its own 30-MW solar farm at the automaker’s engine plant in Alabama.

    Some commercial sector customers, including retailers H-E-B and Buc-EE’s, as well as food producer Bimbo Bakeries, have installed microgrids which include renewable energy resources. These can deliver energy resiliency even in the face of grid outages.

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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