M&M’s and Mars Bars will taste even sweeter now that you know Mars Chocolate North America’s Henderson chocolate factory near Las Vegas is powered by the sun. Now, don’t snicker, the company just completed the installation of a 4.4-acre, PV array that can provide 100 percent of the facility’s electric needs during the day.

The new array is powering Mars subsidiary Ethel M Chocolates’ factory and is collocated at Ethel M Chocolates’ Botanical Cactus Garden in Hederson, Nev. The site will allow more than 700,000 annual visitors to the garden to view the new solar facility.

The system will provide the majority of electricity used at the facility, according to Mars Corporate Social Responsibility Manager Melinda McLoughlin. The 600-kilowatt system will produce roughly 1.3 million kilowatt hours annually.

“That’s 60 percent of the total electricity the facility uses, and 100 percent of the electricity used during the day,” she said.

The project was developed and is owned by juwi solar Inc. It’s net-metered with NV Energy. During some days it could produce more energy than needed and feed power back to the grid, according to juwi Project Manager Mark Marion, who was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the array.

It’s the second PV array that juwi has installed for Mars. In October 2009, it completed a 2.2-megawatt array at Mars’ corporate headquarters in Hackettstown, N.J.

It’s part of a larger effort at Mars to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We’ve got a commitment to completely eliminate our carbon footprint at all of our sites by 2040. Mars is committed to that,” Mcloughlin said. “We’re looking at all of processes right now to be more efficient in everything we do.”

The company’s looking at things like increasing sustainable harvesting of cocoa as well as reducing packaging and more. Mars also has beverage, pet food and gum subsidiaries.

It’s likely that juwi and Mars will partner on future projects as well.

“Mars and juwi are in discussions about future opportunities, but no commitments have been made regarding the timing or location of projects,” Marion said.

The ceremony also was attended by the green M&M, and executives from both companies.

“It’s always exciting to be in the presence of a celebrity,” Marion said.