Detroit Renewable Energy and General Motors announced on November 18, 2013 that they will soon be heating and cooling parts of the GM Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant with steam created via a renewable energy project using solid municipal waste.
When completed, 58% of Detroit-Hamtramck’s energy will be renewable, making the facility the top GM plant in the world in terms of renewable energy.
Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy has this to say: “We have 107 landfill-free facilities across the globe that recycle or reuse their waste, with some of it turned into energy. It made sense to explore this option with DRE at Detroit-Hamtramck, given their quality work in helping us manage our energy use at some of our other GM plants.”
Almost 40,000 tons of metal is recycled per year by Detroit Renewable as well as the over 1 million tons of municipal solid waste it converts into steam and electric power.
To get to the Detroit-Hamtramck GM plant, steam (15.8 megawatts of renewable energy) will make its way down 8,300 feet of pipe starting from Detroit Renewable. This is equal to 12% of the 125 megawatt goal GM plans to reach by 2020.
Construction of this line and related energy infrastructure starts later this month and will be completed and ready for use spring 2014.
