Ford Motor Company’s assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan will soon be home to the state’s largest solar energy system. Later this year, Ford, Detroit Edison and Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas will begin building a 500-kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) energy system at the assembly plant.
The system will power the manufacturing of the new Ford Focus, Focus Electric vehicles and future hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars. It’s expected the solar panel system will offset about $160,000 in electricity costs every year.
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Xtreme Power will provide a battery backup storage system that’s capable of holding two million watt-hours of energy. According to the press release, that’s enough capacity to power 100 Michigan homes for an entire year. A smaller solar energy system will be added separately to power the assembly plant’s lighting system.
Jim Tetreault, Ford Vice President, North American Manufacturing, has high hopes for what the nation can learn from the installation, as well as how the system will change the dynamic of the assembly plant:
“With this solar energy system, we will be able to gain vital understanding about the integration of renewable power, smart-grid technologies and energy storage at an industrial facility. This project is a part of the transformation of Michigan Assembly from a large SUV factory to a modern, flexible, and sustainable small car plant.”
Funding for the project is coming from a variety of sources. Ford is chipping in $800,000 of its own funds. The Michigan Public Service Commission will throw in a $2 million grant, and Detroit Edison will donate $3 million through its SolarCurrents Program, an initiative aimed at installing 15 megawatts of solar energy capacity on residential and commercial rooftops in southeast Michigan over the next five years.
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