Ferrari goes green with rooftop solar installation
Click above to enlarge the Ferrari solar roof
What's red, green and Italian all at the same time? That would be the rooftop solar installation that Ferrari has recently installed on its Engine Mechanical Machining facility in Maranello, Italy. The system, created and installed by a company called EnerRay, features a total of 1,075 solar modules from Mitsubishi Electric that provide 213,985 kWh of power per year. Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that Ferraris are green cars (strike that, there are a few...), but the Italian automaker has indeed been working on technologies like direct injection, dual clutch gearboxes, biofuels, weight reduction and hybrids, and it's doing what it can to reduce the environmental impact of its facilities as well. In addition to the solar roof, Ferrari claims around 165,000 square meters of green areas in its buildings and claims to have planted more than 200 trees in the last six months alone.
[Source: Ferrari]
PRESS RELEASE:
New Photovoltaic System For Ferrari
MARANELLO, Italy – January 20, 2009 – The new photovoltaic system, installed on the roof of Ferrari's Engine Mechanical Machining facility, was officially unveiled to the world today.
The installation comes as part of Ferrari's ongoing environmental sustainability and renewable resources investment programme.
The photovoltaic panels will reduce the amount of power Ferrari takes from the national grid by over 210,000 kWh annually. The system is the work of EnerRay, a Maccaferri Group company.
Ferrari's plan to reduce the environmental impact of its production activities also includes the installation of a trigeneration plant which will be operational by the middle of this year. The new plant will cover virtually all of the company's electricity requirements, which will in turn cut its CO2 emissions in 2009 by 25-30% compared to the present levels.
Ferrari's commitment to environmental sustainability dates all the way back to 2001 when it was awarded ISO 14001 certification; the Prancing Horse also obtained Integrated Environmental Authorisation in 2007.
Over the last few years, Ferrari has also made numerous investments to increase the size and number of green areas both inside and outside its various industrial pavilions. The complex now boasts around 165,000 square metres of green areas with more than 200 trees planted there in the last six months alone.
Our environmental protection investments are also part of the overall Formula Uomo programme launched in the early 1990s by President Luca di Montezemolo to put the individual workers, their needs and skills at the centre of the Company's activities.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF THE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM
- Installed by: EnerRay
- Type of system: not integrated – installed on flat roof
- Orientation: SOUTH-FACING
- Number of modules: 1075
- Module type: 185 Wp Mitsubishi Electric
- Peak power: 198.85 kWp
- Annual electrical output: 213,985 kWh
- Number of inverters: 2
- Inverter type: Siemens Sinvert Solar 100, master/slave configuration.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
iojhopj 1:51PM (1/21/2009)
I hate it when companies do stuff like this, its fine to be green. Lets just be honest. This is about PR, government credits, etc. Ferrari or anyone else - including any and every politician, could care less about going green.
Its about money. Ferrari in this case had something to gain.
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Richard 5:39PM (1/21/2009)
Unfortunately, until you pay for their bills, money is the reason anybody gets up in the morning. Unless you are independently wealthy, your actions are based on money. Even if it is PR, so what? Solar panels are better than spewing more pollutants in the air.
Luke 4:41PM (1/21/2009)
Let us know if they improve their insulation.
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texmln 9:17PM (1/22/2009)
Why is this taxpayer funded alternative energy source good and ethanol bad? Neihther one can sustain itself without government assistance and neither one provides the energy per dollar invested of their more common power generating counterparts.
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Doann 5:46PM (1/24/2009)
The solar panels are nice. At about 10 cents/kwh it should save them about $21,398 a year. That amounts to about the output of a 24.4 kw generator. Compared to the cost buy the system and to maintain the system, the savings doesn't even payback a small percentage of the interest on the money spent. DUH!!!
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DsP 7:43PM (1/24/2009)
Actually.. Since Solar tends not to work in the middle of the night... Or even all that well anytime its dark; it's more like a 60-70kW generator being run 8-10 hours a day. Hmmm... Does the machining plant have 3 shifts? I doubt it... So the peak generation coincides roughly with their main day shift. How fortunate. Either way, it amounts to a decent output backup generation system as well as just handling part of the load. In some circumstances, I could see this sort of system saving a crap load of money if grid power is interrupted. Especially if it allows partial data center operations, simulations, etc to continue running, whilst Power hungry fabrication equipment is stopped gracefully.
Sometimes having something off grid like this can be more of a benefit then what it seems in direct cost/kWh offset.
Doann 9:56PM (1/29/2009)
To DsP,
1) like most Auto Machining Plants, it most likely goes 24/7
2) the 24.4 kw I referred to was averaged out since most solar power systems feed a bank of storage batteries.
3) 24.4 kw would power ~30-35hp motor - about the size needed for a small machine shops fume ventilation system - or perhaps 2 lathes and one milling machine.
4)machining plants do not have large scale "data centers" and most of the NC requirements for the machinery in these plants is localized near each piece of machinery and powered by the same power source- as with most office staff computers which typically have their own UPS system. This would make it impractical to have one central UPS system for data, NC, and office computers.
5) in an operation this large, $58/day of hydro is not worth the effort or the cost of this system
6) the "power hungry fabrication equipment" would not stop gracefully - it would "just stop" without a large generator backup of at least 2 MegaWatt.
Doann