{"id":1990,"date":"2011-08-02T23:51:09","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1990"},"modified":"2011-08-03T00:01:40","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T04:01:40","slug":"1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1990","title":{"rendered":"GM to Provide Chevy Dealers with Solar Canopies to Charge Volts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Eric Ayapana, MOTOR TREND, August 1, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/image1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"image\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/image_thumb1.png\" width=\"280\" height=\"175\" \/><\/a> The balloons and the billboards advertising \u201clow, low financing\u201d commonly found at Chevy dealers will soon be overshadowed by something else: solar panels. <a title=\"General Motors\" href=\"http:\/\/wot.motortrend.com\/manufacturer\/general-motors\/\">General Motors<\/a> has just kicked off its Green Zone initiative, which includes the installation of solar canopies at Chevrolet dealers throughout North America.<\/p>\n<p>The canopies will primarily serve as an electric charging station with the capacity to replenish a dozen <a title=\"2011 Chevy Volt - MT Car of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/www.motortrend.com\/oftheyear\/car\/1101_2011_motor_trend_car_of_the_year_chevrolet_volt\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chevy Volts <\/a>daily. Additionally, the extra power harnessed from the sun can be fed back to the grid to supplement the dealership\u2019s energy usage.<\/p>\n<p>Better yet, it will cost the dealers nothing to have the Green Zone canopies installed on their lots. Two U.S. Chevy dealers are the first to take advantage of the deal they couldn\u2019t refuse: American Chevrolet in Modesto, California and Al Serra Auto Plaza in Grand Blanc, Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question isn\u2019t whether to install a solar canopy, it\u2019s where and how many,\u201d said Joe Serra, president of Serra Automotive. \u201cIt\u2019s a win for us because the electricity generated will help reduce operating costs, and it\u2019s a win for the environment since solar power helps reduce our carbon footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GM first demonstrated the Green Zone project at its Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant, where the Volt is built. The initiative is part of a $7.5 million investment into private company Sunlogics, which will provide and install the dealer solar canopies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust one of these canopies provides enough renewable <a title=\"Reused Chevy Volt Batteries\" href=\"http:\/\/wot.motortrend.com\/round-two-gm-finds-end-of-life-use-for-chevrolet-volt-batteries-99997.html\" target=\"_blank\">energy to power two to three homes per year<\/a>, or more than 25 percent of a dealership\u2019s energy consumption,\u201d said Chris Perry, vice president, Global Chevrolet Marketing and Strategy. \u201cCollectively, that will be a lot of power we are putting back into the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GM is currently leads all auto manufacturers in solar power usage. It has installed three solar power installations at three of its U.S. plants and has the world\u2019s largest rooftop panel array at its assembly plant in Zaragoza, Spain. <a href=\"http:\/\/wot.motortrend.com\/chevy-dealers-save-money-environment-with-solar-canopies-102349.html\" target=\"_blank\">[Read original story]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GM finally seems ready to support its electric car, providing solar-powered canopies to dealers for recharging stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[17,69],"tags":[794,1291,133,1293,1292,1290],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1992,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}