Key Takeaways
Regardless of what current strikes would have you ever consider, Ford continues to be dedicated to its sustainable future, and one in all its largest manufacturing adjustments is paying off in an enormous means. The corporate has been using parking tons coated in photo voltaic panels for the previous couple of years at two main manufacturing websites in Thailand and South Africa. This has been contributing important vitality in direction of its manufacturing efforts.
Ford is one in all America’s oldest automakers and one of many oldest on the planet, popularized for being the primary to successfully mass produce the car underneath Henry Ford with the Ford Mannequin T. In over 120 years, Ford has develop into a gross sales chief in quite a lot of segments, with fashionable nameplates just like the Ford F-150, Transit, and Mustang.
The 2 amenities embody the Silverton Meeting Plant and Ford Thailand Manufacturing, which produce the Ranger and Everest SUV. The latter is actually an SUV model of the midsize truck, with its latest era debuting in 2022. It includes a rugged, high-riding design with a really trendy look, and we had been instantly jealous it wasn’t coming to the US. Additional inexperienced manufacturing makes the fashions much more interesting, and we hope to see this increase to amenities within the US.
Photo voltaic Panels And Parking Tons Simply Make Sense
It is laborious to consider how a lot of the world we dedicate to parking tons. It is really a waste of house, however exploring dual-use options to issues like that is what permits automakers to range their approaches to carbon neutrality. Ford’s Silverton Meeting Plant in Pretoria, South Africa, the corporate has created a 13.5-megawatt photo voltaic car parking zone that gives shade for greater than 3,500 parking areas and generates sufficient energy to create 20,800 Rangers and Everests a 12 months.
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“Automotive parks have unbelievable potential for photovoltaic techniques, changing photo voltaic vitality into electrical energy. The benefit is that they supply shelter for completed automobiles from the rain and extreme warmth whereas additionally offering energy for close by amenities.” – Andrea Cavallaro, Director of Operations, Worldwide Market Group, Ford
On the identical time, in Thailand, the corporate has erected a 7.7-megawatt photo voltaic car parking zone that was lately activated. Right here, 1,500 automobiles can discover shade beneath the panels, and about 21,000 Rangers and Ranger Raptors may be made a 12 months from the facility. One other 8-megawatt floating photo voltaic vitality array is deliberate to go surfing close to the Rayong, Thailand Facility later this 12 months, which can complement the 6-megawatt array already in place there and make it one of many largest arrays within the area.
Half Of Ford’s Carbon-Neutrality Aim
The hope is that adjustments like this can permit Ford to supply 100% carbon-free electrical energy for its world manufacturing by 2035, with the corporate already saying it is achieved 70.5% of its means towards that purpose world wide. This provides to the bigger purpose the corporate has for its whole enterprise, together with its suppliers, going carbon-neutral by 2050. Whereas we’re nonetheless a methods off from solar-powered vehicles, it is a nice first step.
Associated
Hydrogen tanks take up quite a lot of house and may be explosive, however Ford has discovered a single resolution to each issues.
In case you’re questioning why the corporate would not make use of techniques like this right here within the US, properly, it already does, that includes photo voltaic panels at amenities just like the Ford Analysis & Engineering Middle in Dearborn, Michigan. That facility makes use of an array on the rooftop of the ability’s parking storage that gives 1,127 megawatt hours of fresh vitality. Sadly, for our local weather right here within the US, photo voltaic panels aren’t at all times the most suitable choice for clear vitality, which is why Ford is supplementing its clear vitality efforts with wind initiatives.
