GM’s electric motor plant near Baltimore will be the first by a major U.S. automaker dedicated to making the critical components for vehicle electrification when the plant opens in 2013.
GM broke ground Tuesday for the previously announced addition to the complex housing its two-mode hybrid and Heavy Duty transmission operations. The electric motor plant results from two investments totaling $269.5 million announced last year.
Electric motor design and production is a core business for GM in the development and manufacture of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles.
The campus will be powered in part by a 1.23 megawatt rooftop solar array, expected to generate nine percent of its annual energy consumption and save approximately $330,000 during the life of the project.
Constellation Energy will build, own and maintain the solar power system, and GM will purchase all of the electricity generated by the solar panels under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Constellation Energy’s first solar array for GM was a 951-kilowatt system at its Fontana, Calif., Service and Parts Operations warehouse.
GM’s Baltimore Operations has the dual distinction of being powered by renewable energy and generating no landfill waste. It earned zero-landfill status in 2007 by recycling, reusing or converting to energy all wastes from daily operations.[wzslider height=”400″ lightbox=”true”]
