Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, Solar, Volkswagen, AutoblogGreen Exclusive
![vw jetta hybrid with solar panel]()
In December 2011, the
Volkswagen plant near Chattanooga, TN was
certified LEED Platinum. That's a difficult level to reach -
as we described at the time - but the one billion dollars the company spent there fit snugly into the VW corporate storyline: we're going to make cleaner cars at cleaner plants. We're going to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent (between 2006 and 2015). We're going to make sure our production facilities are 25 percent more "environmentally compatible." We're going to Think Blue.
"No other factory, so far, has achieved the Platinum reward."
Today, VW made good on one important piece of its LEED Platinum promise: generating its own clean energy. The huge new solar park that was turned on today was always part of the Chattanooga plan, but its official start marks one more way that VW is at the forefront when it comes to building cars cleanly. As Frank Fischer, CEO and chairman of Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations, put is, "No other factory, so far, has achieved the Platinum reward. The solar park represents the last milestone that we have to take. We promised to build the solar park, and now it will start to run."
Located just a short bus ride away from the factory, the 65-acre solar park (33 of which are the solar panels themselves) is the largest single array in Tennessee. It is also the largest solar park at a US auto factory. It is made up of 33,600 individual solar panels that together generate 9.58 megawatts of DC power (that's at the panels, it's 7.6 MW of AC power going into the plant) and 13.1 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. That's 12.5 percent of the plant's power needs. In CO2 terms, this means emissions are reduced by 6,675 tons a year, or the amount that 360 average US homes would generate.
VW currently builds the Passat in Tennessee, and last year - the first year of full operation - the company built 152,546 vehicles there, beating the target of 145,000. While most of these are sold in the US, some are exported to our North American neighbors as well as South Korea and the Middle East. The solar park is international as well, since VW partnered with Phoenix Solar, a German solar company with operations around the world, and Silicon Ranch.
When we
first visited VW's Chattanooga facility, the message we were left with was that the global automaker was going to use lessons learned in the rolling hills of Hamilton County in other plants around the world. Today, VW called the plant a "benchmark and a role model," and said that energy-saving techniques like lighting optimization, heat recovery and base load reduction would be implemented in VW plants in places like Yizheng, China and Silao, Mexico.
Wolfram Thomas, Group Chief Officer for the Environment, Energy and New Business Areas, said today that, "All our 100 plants are to be environmentally optimized. All our plants must become 25 percent more environmentally compatible." We look forward to seeing how this all plays out, wherever the sun shines.
Continue reading VW starts up largest solar park at US auto factory in Chattanooga, TN
VW starts up largest solar park at US auto factory in Chattanooga, TN originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
