GM Is Building an 850-KW Solar Array at the Corvette Assembly Plant

We all know the C7 Corvette is a performance leader in the sports car world.

Now the light is shining – literally – on the Bowling Green, Ky., facility where the Stingray and Z06 are built.

General Motors is breaking ground this month at the Corvette assembly plant, where the largest solar installation by an automaker in Kentucky will be constructed.

The 850-kilowatt array will generate enough clean energy annually to produce about 850 Corvettes – some 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year.

“Corvette customers are passionate about their vehicles because of their design, technology and precision performance,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM global manager of renewable energy. “Offering them a product that is partially built using green energy will be another proof point that they’re driving a true supercar.”

Energy efficiency is nothing new for the Corvette, which offers the best highway rating at 29 mpg according to the Environmental Protection Agency ratings.

The new solar array in Bowling Green continues a trend for General Motors, which leads the automotive industry in solar energy use in the United States and is No. 20 on the list of the country’s top 25 solar-powered companies, according to a report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

GM joined SEIA in 2013 with the goal of promoting a strong U.S. solar industry. In the past two years, the corporation has added 10 solar arrays, with more on the way. In the coming months, GM will add 2 megawatts of solar power at its facilities, including a 466-kilowatt array at its Rochester Operations facility in New York and an 800-kilowatt array at its Warren Transmission plant.

Sixteen GM facilities will have 11.4 megawatts of solar arrays that will create almost 15 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, preventing the equivalent carbon emissions of 11 million pounds of coal burned.

Source:
General Motors

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