GM manufacturing plant in Spain gets solar panels

Spain is a country with plenty of sun hours, and wasting the solar resource is really missing a good opportunity. So, after similar announcements from Seat and Nissan, and thanks in part to the Spanish Government's incentives for installing solar panels, GM has decided to install up to 320,000 m2 (about 80 acres) of electricity-producing solar panels on the roof of its factory in Figueruelas, near Zaragoza, Spain. The agreement was announced by French company Veolia and represents an investment of about € 53 million. The Figueruelas factory currently mounts the Vauxall/Opel Corsa and Meriva models.
[Source: Econoticias]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MattKelly 6:26PM (4/29/2008)
This is great news and I applaud GME for it. Everyone is always so concerned about what comes out of the tailpipe when it comes to being green, yet plant operations are a big area where automakers can also make a huge impact in lowering CO2 emissions. Take GM's Lansing Delta Township plant as an example--one of only a few (if not the only) manufacturing facilities to get LEED gold certified.
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mroverlord 5:18PM (5/03/2008)
I am honestly suprised the US Gov't hasn't mandated some type of solar system on houses in the us, based on yearly average hours of sunlight.
Oh wait...that would mean the power utilities and coal companies wouldn't make as much money...what was i thinking??
As I understand it, our executives are looking at implementing solar power also where I work, and we have a hideously large electric bill (six figures).
I have been looking into panels for my house, but the initial cost is prohibitive. Luckily solar water heaters are realitively cheap, so I may have one of those soon. Electric water heaters are the 2nd biggest energy consumer in most households behind the central air system.
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