Sooner but more likely later, oil cartels will be hurt by alternative energy. Governments – if they can free themselves from the corruption of oil money – need to promote renewable power. Oil and gas taxpayer subsidies in the U.S. cost more than $4 billion a year.
General Motors’ Changwon Assembly plant in South Korea will install solar panels that can make three-megawatts of electricity on its 688,000 square-foot rooftop. When running at full capacity, the solar panels of Changwon by converting sunlight into electricity will generate enough energy to cut carbon emissions at the facility by 2,400 metric tons per year.
The array – about the size of 11 American football fields – is expected to go into service in the third quarter of 2013, supplying what’s said to be the equivalent energy for 1,200 South Korean 1,200 homes annually. This is roughly the same as powering 221 homes in the United States because of higher rates of energy use. South Korean conglomerate KC Cottrell will install the panels.
Once installed solar panels have a life of at least 20 years, and operation can conducted by computers without the need for workers.
“This array will be the fourth-largest in our solar energy portfolio, joining our plants in Germany and Spain that house large solar capacities on their rooftops,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM’s manager of renewable energy. GM has more than 33 megawatts of solar energy installed at its global facilities.
Changwon Assembly also recently met the Energy Star Challenge for Industry from the U.S. EPA by reducing its energy intensity by 10% in two years. Through energy efficient practices, the facility avoided emitting more than 5,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere during that time, which led to $622,000 in cost savings.
