Volt Power

This is the new General Motors Enterprise Data Center located at the Milford Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, a complex west of Detroit:

Photo: John F. Martin

This is the first-generation Chevrolet Volt, a 2015 model:

What does the building have to do with the car?

This:

Photo: John F. Martin

GM is using five Volt batteries in combination with a 74-kW ground-mount solar array and two 2-kW wind turbines to generate what they estimate will be some 100-MWh of energy on an annual basis, enough juice to provide the energy needs of the office building and the lighting in an adjacent parking lot:

Photo: John F. Martin

According to Pablo Valencia, senior manager, GM Battery Life Cycle Management: “This system is ideal for commercial use because a business can derive full functionality from an existing battery while reducing upfront costs through this reuse.”

One reason why they’re looking at reuse of the batteries is because the second-generation Volt will become available later this year.

One might make a comment about the presumed number of available batteries (last year, Chevrolet delivered 18,805 Volts, down 18.6% from the 23,094 units in 2013, which, in terms of passenger cars, puts it ahead only of the SS, of which 2,479 were delivered in 2014, but that’s a 493.1% increase over the previous year).

But one won’t.