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BMW’s South African Plant Will Be Partially Powered by Manure

BMW is apparently dead serious about cutting back on wasting energy and using electricity from anything but clean sources. In a dashing move, the company decided to buy electricity generated by cow manure for its factory in Rosslyn, South Africa.
bmw f30 3 series facelift leaving Rosslyn Plant 57 photos
Photo: BMW
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After the Leipzig plant, where the i3 and i8 models are being built, moved to an all new system that uses solar panels and windmills to get its electricity needs, this is yet another step towards a better future.

The Germans signed a deal with South African supplier Bio2Watt to buy up to 4.4 MegaWatts of power from one of its biogas plants located 50 miles (80 km) away from the Rosslyn factory. This will span over 10 years and should cover around 25 to 30 percent of BMW’s needs in terms of electricity.

The electrons are not generated exclusively by cow manure, even though about 160 tons of it are being used every day, coming in from around 30,000 cattle from the vicinity. To that, the electric company adds dung and organic waste, sour yogurt, expired dog food, paper sludge, fruits and leftovers, amongst others. All in all, around 500 tons of waste are coming in daily and going through the process of generating electricity.

This goes to show the commitment of the German company towards using clean energy for its plants. At the moment, 51 percent of the energy used by BMW for car making comes from clean sources, according to South African spokesman Diederik Reitsma.

However, one small hiccup in this plan could be represented by the fact that the electricity goes from the Bio2Watt plant to Rosslyn using the state power utility, Eskom Holdings SOC, which has been doing some upgrades lately that led to local blackouts.

That means that Bio2Watt can’t guarantee the security of energy supply to BMW if Eskom decides to cut the power. Hopefully, that won’t be the case anyhow.

Other clean-energy sources will be considered in the future, such as solar panels at first, to take things even further and cut down on emissions generated by the electricity needed for car making purposes.

"We have increased the share of renewable energy as a percentage of total power consumed by the BMW Group to an impressive 51% in 2014. Our vision is to draw 100% of our energy requirements from renewable sources with the help of partners such as Bio2Watt,” said Mr Tim Abbott, Managing Director of BMW Group South Africa.

At the moment, up to 60,000 3 Series models are being assembled in South Africa per year, this being the first plant opened outside of Germany in the history of the brand, back in 1973.
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