BMW Manufacturing harnessed the power of the sun, to run their Zentrum Museum, electric car charging stations and visitor's center.
The plant's 400 new solar modules were installed near Interstate 85. They are now online, and providing 240 watts each of cleaner, greener power. This project was completed with help from Southern Energy Management. The company is based in Morrisville, NC, but they have a regional office in Greenville.
“Adding a new, alternative energy platform to our energy portfolio is another step in our commitment to sustainable methods of generating power at our factory,” said Duncan Seaman, Department Manager, Market Operations USA & Canada. “It is the perfect complement to our existing landfill gas-to-energy and hydrogen fuel cell program and offsets the fossil fuel requirements otherwise needed to run our facility.”
This is the latest efforts by BMW, to reduce their carbon footprint, and become more eco-friendly. Since 2003, BMW has used methane gas; collected, cleaned and compressed from a local landfill, to power more than 50% of the plant’s total energy requirements.
In 2009, the company invested $12 million in its landfill gas program to further improve overall efficiency. Implementation of the program has reduced CO2 emissions by about 92,000 tons per year and saves annually in energy costs. More recently, the company announced the addition of a hydrogen storage and distribution center within their on-site 11 Megawatt Energy Center to facilitate on-site fueling of a hydrogen-fuel cell material handling fleet inside the 1.2 million square foot assembly plant that completes final assembly of the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement