Volvo To Have World's First CO2-Free Auto Plant
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 09.28.05
Volvo wants to make its Tuve (which is in Göteborg, as far as I know) truck plant CO2-free. To achieve that goal, the plant will be heated and powered solely by biofuels and wind power. Volvo will first try to achieve energy savings of 20% through efficiency and, in partnership with Göteborg Energi, they will build five large wind farms and a biofuel plant next to the Tuve Volvo plant. The construction is expected to be finished during 2007. "The five wind power plants alone will increase the amount of wind-power generated electricity in Sweden by 4%." But Volvo doesn't intend to stop there, they also plan to make more of their installations CO2-free in the future.
Here is a quote from Volvo’s Chief Executive Officer, Leif Johansson:
The Greenhouse Effect is a reality and the automotive industry has a specific responsibility for coping with emissions of carbon dioxide. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is no easy task, but the issue is so important that I believe we must be prepared to try out a variety of different alternatives, if we really want to succeed. Our investment in the Tuve plant is one such effort.This is not solely an admirable environmental effort. We also expect that it will eventually be profitable on a purely commercial basis. [...]
This is an area in which Volvo can truly make a contribution. If all our plants in Sweden were made CO2-free, the reduction would correspond to a full one percent of Sweden’s total emissions of carbon dioxide.
::Volvo launches world's first CO2-free automotive plant, via Green Car Congress
well thats cool-- whatever happened with Volvo's smog eating cars?? where did they go??
Ford ownz volvo now, I think. Ford should take a lesson in manufacturing from the Swedes. Now, where are the C02-free cars? ??.. ???? ..?? Still waiting on that one.
Ford owns 33% of Volvo, IIRC, but they are sharing many technologies. I hope they'll follow that initiative.
Ford's new plant in Dearborn Mich. is actually quite green. It sports 10 acres of planted roof, among other things. Go Volvo, though I guess their car plant will not see the same changes yet?
ok no one answered my question so i answered it myself! What, you dont think a grill that turns two 03's (ozone- smog)into three 02s is cool? i think every grill ought to be covered in this stuff! whats the story? is it spreading??
Interesting...car factories are necessarily one-story affairs for obvious reasons, that architecturally creates a good opportunity for large-scale solar farms, big turbulence-free areas for a mid-scale (Fuhrlander-type) turbine, or planted roofs...