Honda has activated two newly installed wind turbines at its US transmission plant in Russell’s Point, Ohio.
This will make the plant the first major automotive manufacturing facility in the US to obtain a substantial volume of electricity directly from on site wind turbines, Honda claimed.
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The turbines will produce 10,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year, about 10% of the plant’s overall electricity consumption.
The move is another step toward meeting Honda’s voluntary environmental commitments. These include making a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions from products and “significant” CO2 reductions from the company’s plants and other operations by 2020, compared with 2000 levels.
Further investment in wind power will come later in 2014, with the construction of a wind farm alongside the new car plant in Brazil. The wind farm is expected to generate electricity equivalent to Honda’s current annual electricity consumption for automobile production in Brazil (approximately 95,000 MWh).
The automaker’s new Yorii factory has thin-film solar cells capable of generating 2.6MWh of electricity on the roof of the final assembly and inspection building – claimed to be the largest solar power generation system at any car factory in Japan.
This is claimed to eliminate 1,200 tonnes of CO2. Yorii also has an 8,730kW gas turbine generator running on city gas to help lower emissions.
Honda car plants in the UK and Turkey also use solar power.
