General Motors (GM) and Detroit Renewable Energy announced a renewable energy project that will see solid municipal waste from Metro Detroit into process steam to be used to heat and cool portions of GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.
The plant will see 58% of its energy needs come from renewable energy marking Detroit-Hamtramck the top GM facility in the world by percentage of renewable energy used. “We have 107 landfill-free facilities across the globe that recycle or reuse their waste, with some of it turned into energy,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy. “It made sense to explore this option with DRE at Detroit-Hamtramck, given their quality work in helping us manage our energy use at some of our other GM plants.”
The steam will travel 8,300 ft through a pipe originating at Detroit Renewable Power and ending at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. The steam pipe will provide 15.8 MW of renewable energy to the plant, which equates to 12% of GM’s overall goal of putting 125 MW of renewable energy into its energy portfolio by 2020. Construction of the new steam line and associated energy infrastructure will begin later this month and become operational next spring.
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