GM is continuing to pull attention away from its ailing cash reserves and declining sales by creating buzz about its green initiatives. The latest addition to that list is its decision to cover the roof of a European plant completely with solar panels. It’s a commitment to green in the same vein as the Chevy Volt.

The plant is located in Zaragoza, Spain and it will be the world’s largest rooftop power source. 183,000 square meters of photovoltaic cells on the roof will generate 10 megawatts of power spanned across 85,000 solar modules, according to Reuters.

GM is making this move very publicly as it looks to attract discerning consumers who insist that anyone they buy from must maintain sustainable business processes. The company is betting those same customers will be interested in the Chevy Volt, which not only will sharply reduce emissions, but also save loads of cash at the pump.

Opel Corsa, Meriva, and Combo models are built at the Zaragoza plant, and by installing the rooftop solar panels GM expects to “. . . cut carbon dioxide emissions by 6,700 tonnes per year”.

In what’s sure to be a popular move, GM will sell the excess electricity it generates from the solar power back to the grid. In the past there has also been speculation that the Chevy Volt could act as a vehicle-to-grid device where excess power is stored in the vehicles and fed back into the grid during peak usage times. That would require batteries with a bit more capacity than the currently planned lithium-ion technology, or a massive number of Chevy Volts.

Either way, GM isn’t the only one considering solar power on the roof, “Volkswagen is planning to equip the roof of its massive Wolfsburg assembly plant in Germany with a photovoltaic energy system after already installing a small version at its Emden site.”

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Entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 12:09 am under Auto, Green Technology.

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