"World’s largest rooftop solar power station being built in Zaragoza Spain" _GM_ is getting pounding now days but they are building this massive renewable energy application in one upcoming Auto assembly plant in EC. A monmoths 15,1 million kWh, sufficient for 4.600 households with an average annual consumption of 3.300 kWh. World?s largest rooftop solar power station being built in Zaragoza - GM Europe - Social Media Newsroom Also see CA's Southern california Edison- Nation's largest solar panel covering: 65 million square foot roof top photovoltaic panels capable of producing 250 Mega-Watts power. http://greenpost.way-nifty.com/softenergy/2008/03/southern_califo_b0a1.html
This is great. Why cannot GM demonstrate the same kind of wisdom and long-term thinking in North America? GM can retool and make a profit manufacturing photovoltaic systems, electric light and high speed rail cars.
I think GM-Europe can work with EC governments for project cooperation but here in the States, well, they are messy.. While GM-Europe making profits but the North American Headquarter coffins are empty and hemorrageing big time! Somebody said, Why is "Wagoneer" still at the helm of GM and along with the savvy "Lutz"... Lutz, I remember one time Iaccocca almost nominate him for Chrysler's top brass position but somehow, he did not get the post...
Speaking of rail cars, GM used to run a VERY profitable business building streamliners and railroad locomotives (their Electro-Motive Division). It's a shame they ran the division into the ground and had to sell EMD about 5 years ago. If they are going to build high speed rail cars, they are going to have to re-start from the ground up... Sigh. I think there is a silver lining in this whole sordid cloud though... Once GM exited the railroad motive power business, General Electric bacame the dominant player and has been innovating in this space-- GE is now building hybrid locomotives that recover the energy from braking and storing it in batteries for later use-- Their Hybrid GEVOs.
Wow, that is really a shame considering rail is going to get hotter and hotter, just like hybrids, solar, wind, etc. A pity they couldn't see the future in rail. Seems they always seem to be abandoning something about 5-10 years before the demand heats up. I wonder who's responsible for that?
"For the government of Aragon the rooftop solar power station is an important pilot project towards the large scale use of solar energy" This excerpt makes it sound like this is just an experiment. Hopefully, this will lead to more projects. I agree with you 100% that GM should retool and start manufacturing and selling solar panels on the side.
