Mars Australia's Ballarat factory, along with its five other factories and two sales offices, will have 100 per cent of its power use offset by a new solar farm in Kiamal.
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Through a 20-year power purchasing agreement with French solar farm developer Total Eren, Mars will match the electricity requirements of its eight sites with 50 megawatts to be supplied to the national grid to increase the ratio of renewable energy in the National Energy Market.
The project is part of the company's 'Sustainable in a Generation' initiative which hopes to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 27 per cent by 2025 and 67 per cent by 2050.
The Kiamal Solar Farm in north-west Victoria, three kilometres north of Ouyen, spans 4.6 square kilometres, features 718,000 solar panels and has an eventual grid output of 200 megawatts.
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Mars Food Australia general manager Bill Heague said business, government and individuals must work together to take action on climate change.
"What we were looking to do was add capacity to the grid so we wanted to build extra infrastructure, not just for Ballarat, but our eight sites across the country," he said.
"There's a solar array on-site [at Ballarat] but the amount we could produce on-site wouldn't be enough so we've elected to build renewable capacity into the grid and turn that grid green over time."
The 50 megawatts the farm generates for Mars Australia is enough to power the production of 185 million bags of peanut M&M's or 1.4 billion bottles of tomato sauce.
Mars Australia produces brands including M&M's, Snickers, Starburst, Pedigree, Whiskas and Extra across its six plants in Ballarat, Wodonga, Asquith, Bathurst, Wacol, and Wyong with two sales offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr Heague said Australians could feel more confident about buying Mars products with the company's transition to renewable energy.
"I'd like to think as our consumers more transparently know where their products come from and how they're made, Mars customers will happily choose our products knowing where they came from and our brands will remain relevant and our factories vibrant."
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