Two manufacturing giants in the automobile industry, Honda and BMW have turned green by installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels at its facilities.
Honda has been deploying solar electricity generation systems at its manufacturing plants in Japan and till now the company has installed a total capacity of 3.3 MW. Honda has been using solar panels produced by its own solar division, Honda Soltec. The solar division is based in Kikuchi-gun, Japan and it manufactures and distributes thin film solar cells. Honda has made the recent deployment of 9 kW solar energy system at its dealership facility, Honda Cars Tokyo Chuo. This installation is the beginning of the company’s solar power program that will focus on deployment of similar solar PV panels at more than 100 dealerships.
BMW has also recently completed installation of 400 units of solar power modules at the company’s Zentrum heritage museum and visitor centre located in South Carolina, U.S. Each solar module has a capacity to generate 240 watt of energy. Half a million dollar worth solar system offers the total electricity required to power BMW’s museum, according to an article published in Energy Matters. The system will also power three electric vehicle (EV) charging stations deployed at the company’s key facility.
Source: http://world.honda.com/group/HondaSoltec/