BMW is working toward being fully operational on renewable energy, a noble goal. As it stands right now, the Leipzig, Germany plant gets wind turbine electricity and the Spartanburg, South Carolina plant is operating using methane gas from a landfill near the plant. Not a bad start, by any green enthusiast’s measure. But the company wants all of it’s power to be 100% renewable by the year 2020, and that means that for the thirty-one production sites for BMW products, a total of one terrawatt of power has to come from renewable sources, and that’s asking quite a bit. Solar power and turbine power only go so far.
Case in point: the Rossyln, Pretoria, South Africa plant, the company’s first foreign plant, is looking at biomass setup that runs on cow and chicken droppings to power production of 3-series vehicles. Cow and chicken crap? Why? Because even though BMW has made gains in electric and electric-hybrid vehicles, like the BMW i8, their total carbon footprint has been dinged by the process of making the batteries. We’re all about them making any car greener that doesn’t make you look like an absolute dork while driving, and the i8 is one of those rare vehicles that actually pulls the stunt off well, but the flipside to a successful hybrid right now is a battery that took tons of power and some damage to the Earth to make. Running a powerplant on literal B.S.? Do with that what you will, but it’s a start.
Courtesy: Bloomberg
Will the company be known as “Bulls Make Wattage”?
Well I thought modern BMWs were shit – but this is ridiculous!