
BMW Manufacturing recently installed solar panels to run its Zentrum Museum, electric car charging stations and visitor's center in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
BMW's plant constructed the 400 solar panels near Interstate 85, supplying 240 watts of green energy to the site.
Installing solar panels to its manufacturing facility is another effort by BMW to become more energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions.
“Adding a new, alternative energy platform to our energy portfolio is another step in our commitment to sustainable methods of generating power at our factory,” said Duncan Seaman, department manager, for Market Operations USA & Canada. “It is the perfect complement to our existing landfill gas-to-energy and hydrogen fuel cell program and offsets the fossil fuel requirements otherwise needed to run our facility.”
The installation of solar panels follows BMW using methane gas that was collected, cleaned and compressed from a local landfill to provide more than 50 percent of the plant's total energy.
BMW recently reported a 5.8 percent increase in January sales when compared to the same month in 2011.

