Volvo First Automaker to Go Carbon Dioxide Free

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, September 24, 2007 (ENS) - The Volvo Trucks' plant in Ghent, Belgium has become the first vehicle manufacturing plant in the world that operates without emitting any carbon dioxide, CO2, the Volvo Group announced Friday. The gas contributes to global warming as emissions from factories, power plants and motor vehicles form an atmospheric blanket, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet.

The Volvo Group says its efforts to establish CO2-free manufacturing plants are in line with the European Union's goal for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent across Europe in the next 13 years, by 2020.

Inside the Volvo Truck factory in Ghent, Belgium (Photo courtesy Green Car Congress)

"Our ambition is to make all our plants CO2-free plants and Ghent is the first," says Volvo CEO Leif Johansson. "It is not an easy undertaking, but we are prepared to try different alternatives to achieve our goal for CO2-free production in our plants."

The Ghent trucks plant, which produces about 35,000 trucks a year, in past depended on natural gas for power. Now the factory has three wind power generating stations on the site, which will cover half of the plant's electricity requirements.

The remaining electricity consists of certified green energy supplied by the Belgian energy company Electrabel.

A new pellet-fired biomass plant supplies 70 percent of the heating requirements for the Ghent plant and energy for the combustion process is provided by solar cells on the roof.

The remaining 30 percent is provided by an oil-fired boiler that was converted to burn bio oil.

With 2,500 employees, the Volvo Trucks plant in Ghent makes the Volvo FH, Volvo FM and Volvo FL truck models.

Volvo's change to CO2-free manufacturing began in 2005 when the company decided to transform the Volvo Trucks plant in Tuve, Sweden into a CO2-free vehicle plant. Work is currently in progress on the local planning and an application for environmental permits has been prepared.

The Volvo Trucks plant in Umea, Sweden also is undergoing a retooling to become CO2-free.

The Volvo Group, a publicly-held company headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden, has production facilities in 18 countries.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.