The American manufacturer today announced it also won the 2011 ENERGY STAR Award for Sustained Excellence from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Ford's energy efficiency improvements involve better paint processes, including implementation of the 3-Wet Paint Process and recirculation of air in paint spray booths. These process improvements eliminate bake ovens between paint booths, reduce paint booth footprint and the amount of ventilation air that must be heated and humidified to paint a car. The energy savings per plant is approximately 35 million kWh annually.
Other efforts include the following:
• Retooled powertrain manufacturing facilities with energy efficient equipment and process changes including flexible machining, minimum quantity lubrication and elimination of heated parts washers
• Improved metering at manufacturing facilities allows Ford to measure daily and weekly production and non-production energy use
• Installation of energy efficient lighting systems at various Ford locations including a 50,000 light fixture upgrade in southeast Michigan that will reduce energy use by 18.2 million kWh and is expected to save Ford $1.3 million annually
• Development and launch of a commonized sustainability measurement scale for all manufacturing plants worldwide. The scale evaluates performance in all areas of sustainability – energy, air quality, water, waste and others – and will be used to plan and measure future improvements
• Installed a solar power generation system at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant delivering 500 kW of renewable energy which is integrated with 750-kW battery storage facility. This facility will help power the plant and production of Ford's new Focus, Focus Electric, next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles
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