Ford has a better idea

Anyone who grew up in my era should remember the old Ford advertising slogan of “Ford has a better idea” with a lightbulb as the visual image. I tended to be particularly familiar with Ford because my grandfather ran a small Ford car dealership in rural central Indiana during the depression era. As a result, my grandparents always owned Ford automobiles.

Well, kudos to Ford for coming up with yet another great idea, only this time the symbol should be a solar panel, as the company has installed a large solar array at its Wayne, Michigan manufacturing facility. According to Ford’s press release:

* New Ford-DTE Energy solar power generation system at Michigan Assembly Plant begins delivering 500 kilowatts of renewable energy to help power the plant (see photo below).

* The solar facility will be integrated with a 750-kilowatt energy storage facility that can store 2 million watt-hours of energy using batteries – enough to power 100 average Michigan homes for a year.

* Renewable energy generated by solar energy system will help power production of Ford’s new Focus and Focus Electric as well as next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

* Solar power installation serves as pilot project for potential replication at other Ford facilities.

Solar panels on Wayne, MI Ford Car Plant - c/o green.autoblog.com

What is particularly cool about this program is they will be reusing electric car batteries for energy storage. According to the story on greenautoblog.com:

“Some of the solar energy will be used to recharge ten electric switcher trucks that transport parts around the facility. In addition, Ford will demonstrate the possibility of using electrified vehicle batteries as stationary power storage devices. This sort of reuse is expected to become more prevalent in the future after batteries have reached the end of their useful life as vehicle power sources.”

Ford should be commended for its ongoing focus on environmentally-friendly programs, whether it be electric vehicles, hybrid-electric vehicles, this solar farm at its Wayne, Michigan plant, the world’s largest green roof on its Dearborn Truck Plant, or recycling/reusing electric car batteries.  In each of these cases, it can be correctly stated that Ford does have a better idea; in fact, a much better idea.

Ford Truck Plant - Dearborn, MI c/o greenroofs.org