Ford Looks at Sky to Utilize Solar Energy

Ford Motor Company, in collaboration with Detroit Edison, Xtreme Power and the state of Michigan, is preparing to install a solar power producing structure at Ford’s assembly plant situated in Michigan. The installation of such a structure will benefit the company nearly $160,000 per annum being the money spent on electric power.

Ford is planning to install a 500 kW solar PV panel system at its factory, which will be connected with a 750 kW battery storage facility capable of storing up to 2 million watt hours of energy. The Dynamic Power Resource’s on-site energy storage and power management system will be provided by Xtreme Power, an Austin Texas based company. The solar installation performed over the assembly plant’s roof top is a part of SolarCurrents program organized by Detroit Edison to install PV plants over roof tops all over southeast Michigan to generate 15 MW during the next five years. The solar roof assembly project at Ford Michigan received an amount of $3 million as a part outlay from SolarCurrents program of Detroit Edison, and a grant of $2 million grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission as a part of the state's smart-grid scheme and Ford contributed roughly an amount of $800,000.

Ford has plans to utilize the produced solar power for the manufacture of Focus and Focus Electric vehicles. The company is also planning to integrate the factory lighting systems at its assembly section with the solar lighting system in due course.

Source: http://www.ford.com/