Automakers turn to wind, solar to power plants

With GM using solar at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant and Volkswagen recently unveiling a huge solar array at its Chattanooga plant, Honda is next to display its green credentials--with wind turbines at its Ohio transmission factory, Ingram writes.

|
Rick Bowmer/AP/File
A wind turbine is shown near Arlington, Ore. Green energy projects are becoming vital in maintaining an image of corporate sustainability for carmakers, Ingram writes, as their products come under ever greater pressure from legislators and environmental groups.

It's no good simply producing green cars these days--you have to be green at every stage of producing the cars, too.

With GM using solar at its Detroit-Hamtramck plantand Volkswagen recently unveiling a huge solar array at its Chattanooga plant, Honda is next to display its green credentials--with wind turbines at its Ohio transmission factory.

Together with Juhl Wind of Pipestone, Minnesota, Honda will set up two utility-scale wind turbines at the plant.

That'll make it the first major automotive manufacturing facility in the U.S. to get a substantial amount of its power from wind--helping drastically reduce the plant's CO2 emissions.

While the turbines will provide for ten percent of the facility's power use, Honda estimates that the two turbines will provide 10,000-megawatt hours of electricity per year. Each is owned and run by Juhl Wind. 

Studies have also shown that the two 260-foot, 160-foot blade turbines will have no adverse effects on the local wildlife and environment.

Just last week, rival Volkswagen unveiled its own green power initiative, with a solar field at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The 33-acre field makes it the largest at any industrial plant in the world, and is expected to produce an enormous 13.1 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year--the equivalent of 1,200 homes.

Such green energy projects are becoming vital in maintaining an image of corporate sustainability for carmakers, as their products come under ever greater pressure from legislators and environmental groups.

Plants like Chattanooga and Russells Point actively minimise waste and seek greater efficiency throughout the manufacturing process--meaning each new generation of car is cleaner than the last, before it even turns a wheel.

We're only likely to see more manufacturers unveiling similar projects in the future--and we think that's a very good thing indeed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Automakers turn to wind, solar to power plants
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0128/Automakers-turn-to-wind-solar-to-power-plants
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe