AB Volvo is making Volvo Trucks’' plant in Tuve the world'’s first CO2-free automotive plant by using wind power and biofuel as sources for all the plant'’s electricity and heat.While going to CO2-free cars would definitely be the ideal step, I'd imagine that auto plants pump a hefty amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. What's particularly encouraging about this news is the company's progressive thinking on climate change:
Combined with efforts to achieve energy savings of up to 20%, Volvo, in cooperation with Göteborg Energi is currently building five large wind power plants and a new biofuel plant adjacent to the Tuve plant.
The Greenhouse Effect is a reality and the automotive industry has a specific responsibility for coping with emissions of carbon dioxide. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is no easy task, but the issue is so important that I believe we must be prepared to try out a variety of different alternatives, if we really want to succeed. Our investment in the Tuve plant is one such effort.The plant's green energy production facilities are scheduled to go online in 2007. We'll have to watch and see if other automakers take similar steps.
This is not solely an admirable environmental effort. We also expect that it will eventually be profitable on a purely commercial basis.
--Volvo's Chief Executive Officer Leif Johansson
Categories: Volvo, cars, plant, energy, wind power, biofuel, carbon, climate change
