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Volvo Cars Uses Only Hydropower for Manufacturing Facilities in Sweden and Belgium
27 January 2008
Volvo Cars now relies solely on hydropower from its electricity suppliers for its manufacturing facilities in Sweden and Belgium.
We aim to use renewable energy to the greatest possible extent and hydropower is the best alternative that our suppliers can offer at present.
—Magnus Hellsten, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing at Volvo Cars
The new agreement with Sweden’s Vattenfall and Belgium’s Electrabel covers all electricity contracted via Volvo Cars’ purchasing department. In practical terms, this means that the utility providers sell certificates to guarantee that all electricity delivered to Volvo Cars in Sweden and Belgium has been generated from hydropower. All told, the agreement covers about 1,000 GWh (gigawatt hours).
Volvo Cars has been focused on finding other energy sources than oil has been going on for more than 25 years. In 1982 the company took the first step by using residual heat from the nearby refineries to heat the factory in Torslanda. In 1988 the company started using natural gas, which is now the main fuel for heating the factories in Sweden and Belgium. The company is now working to replace the natural gas with renewable biogas.
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Comments
You broke my heart when you sold out to Ford; now you tell me you are managing the company even better. Any chance you can buy your company back?
Posted by: Lad | Jan 27, 2008 9:06:57 AM
Hydro(electric)power? In Belgium?
I suggest that you take a look at Google Earth around Gent, Belgium - or even Belgium. Rather flat... The fact is that this is basically offsetting since Belgium imports its electricity from its neighbours. There is no such capacity in Belgium and this, as usual, is greenwash.
Posted by: Simon | Jan 27, 2008 11:43:48 AM
And all exhaust emissions are returned to their facilities or tree farms for remediation.
I believe it was SAAB who got into trouble for advertising their vehicle as having a cleaner emission than the air at intake.
Posted by: arnold | Jan 27, 2008 1:29:57 PM
That's not to say that Volvo are not on the right track. They had a lot to do with introducing the original water based paints etc.
We are cynical as we know that this will encourage guilt offsetting by their customers.
Its easy to see a future where the poor will be blamed as monster polluters as they buy their electricity from those smokey coal burners.
Posted by: arnold | Jan 27, 2008 1:36:35 PM
arnold:
Don't worry, the rich will buy the lowest price electricity and the lowest cost gas guzzlers regarless of the pollution created.
Higher price clean electricity and greener cars will be pushed on the poors, otherwise those new products would not sell well enough.
Knowing that, a compensation system, whereby cleaner products were subsidized, mostly for low income people, would be justified. Higher income people would have to refund such subsidies on income tax day. That is done in Canada. You have to refund government give aways on income tax day if your income is over $75K.
There are a thousand ways to transfer $$$ from one group to another or from one product to another.
You could have a progressive high (20% to 50%) purchase tax on gas guzzlers and an equivalent negative tax on the purchase of PHEVs and BEVs. It is very easy to do but the will must be there.
Posted by: Harvey D | Jan 27, 2008 3:40:16 PM
Hydropower in Belgium is very difficult. Though they have a three big wind-turbines on own parking spaces in Gent.
Posted by: | Jan 28, 2008 7:14:28 AM
Simon: actually, belgium is a net exporter of electricity; vast quantities of nuke electricity are sent to power dutch pumps to keep the netherlands water-free (below water level on sand...)
Thus, the actual power for anyone in belgium is most likly generated by a nuclear power station. However, there is a skewed scheme in place in europe, where the label "water power" plant electricity can be sold (to become nuclear power plant electricity); However, the sellers of that label typically omit mentioning to their local consumers, that after the sale, they get "nuclear electricity"...
BTW: AFAIK the netherlands use about 1-2 GW continous for pumping water... the perfect load for a nuclear reactor :)
Posted by: realarms | Jan 29, 2008 9:10:48 AM
i like monkeys
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im in luv with a monkey...its in luv with ur mom
Posted by: monkeyluver507 | Feb 8, 2008 1:15:21 PM
who is monkeyluver507? and get off of the website
Posted by: | Feb 8, 2008 1:18:23 PM
