General Motors (GM) recently announced that its assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, will soon be able to build up to 125,000 trucks a year using wind power from turbines whose blades span the length of a football field in diameter.
Arlington Assembly produces more than 1,200 vehicles daily, including the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV. The 115 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy will be enough to manufacture more than half of the plant's annual vehicle output.
Arlington Assembly expects to start using the clean power during the fourth quarter of 2016, avoiding about $2.8 million in energy costs annually. Over the course of 14 years, GM will avoid more than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the emissions of 112 million gallons of gasoline consumed.
"Our investment is helping accelerate the proliferation of clean energy in Texas and the use of wind as a reliable, renewable source of energy," said Jim DeLuca, GM executive vice president of global manufacturing. "Our sustainable manufacturing mindset benefits the communities in which we operate across the globe."
Renewable energy complements a robust energy efficiency program at the plant. Arlington Assembly recently met the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Challenge for Industry by reducing the energy intensity of its operations by 10 percent in five years. The plant also is investing in a new paint shop that will use half the energy of the system it will replace.
For more information, visit www.gm.com.