Hyundai Motor announced plans on Thursday to convert the rooftops of its Asan factory in South Chungcheong Province into a huge solar power plant by the end of this year.

About 40,000 solar panels will be installed across 213,000 square meters on the rooftops of four factory buildings there, about 68 percent of the total rooftop area at the factory.

Hyundai, which has teamed up with regional power generation company Korea Midland Power, said the new facilities would supply 11.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year to 3,200 neighboring households.

A growing number of global companies have recently been outfitting their untapped sites with solar panels in a bid to generate energy without further damaging the environment.

By replacing existing thermal power plants, the eco-friendly rooftop solar plant is expected to have the same impact of planting 1.12 million trees or cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 5,600 tons, the company said.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)