The electric vehicle market is only expected to grow in the future, but electrification poses new challenges for automakers and the environment. For example, General Motors was determined to figure out how battery systems could be used after they reach the end of their useful life in electrified vehicles.

Thanks to a new partnership with ABB Group, GM hopes to develop projects that would reuse Chevrolet Volt battery systems, which will have up to 70 percent of life remaining after their automotive use is exhausted.

According to GM, secondary use of 33 Volt batteries will have enough storage capacity to power up to 50 homes for about four hours during a power outage. That’s a significant amount of power that the automaker hopes won’t be wasted. With ABB Group, GM is building a prototype that could lead to Volt battery packs storing energy, including renewable wind and solar energy, and feeding it back to the power grid.

“GM’s battery leadership position doesn’t stop at the road – it extends throughout the life of the battery, including ways we can benefit society and the environment,” said Micky Bly, GM executive director – Global Electrical Systems, Electrification and Infotainment. “As we grow our battery systems expertise, we need to assure we’re optimizing the development of our battery systems with secondary use in mind from the start.”

According to Chevrolet Dealers Indianapolis, not only could Volt battery packs enable utilities to reduce the cost of peak load conditions, but they’ll also help reduce utilities’ needs for power control, protection and additional monitoring equipment.

“Our tests so far have shown the viability of the GM-ABB solution in the laboratory and they have provided valuable experience to overcome the technical challenges,” said Pablo Rosenfeld, ABB’s program manager for Distributed Energy Storage Medium Voltage Power Products. “We are making plans now for the next major step – testing a larger prototype on an actual electric distribution system.”

Check out  the Chevy Volt at Indianapolis Used Cars or your local Chevy dealer.

General Motors will soon install the largest photovoltaic solar array in Southeast Michigan, at the same facility that builds the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car. The 516-kilowatt project, will produce enough electricity to charge 150 Volts every day for a year.

According to Lousiana Chevrolet Dealers, the solar field will occupy 264,000-square-feet and will be completed by the end of summer. It will save the automaker’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant roughly $15,000 per year over the 20-year easement agreement.

“This array will significantly decrease energy consumption by combining solar power with ongoing efficiency tactics such as lighting and equipment upgrades and automating equipment shut-down,” said Bob Ferguson, vice president of GM Public Policy. “Making sustainable choices is good for both the environment and our bottom line. Obviously cost savings is critical for GM, and the ability to save $15,000 per year while being environmental serves us well.”

Chevrolet Waukomis said DTE Energy and GM will build the solar field on an area that maximizes solar output. DTE is investing $3 million in the array at Detroit-Hamtramck.

“Our partnership with GM is another example of how our companies work to build a more energy-efficient and sustainable future,” said Trevor Lauer, Detroit Edison vice president, Marketing & Renewables. “Our SolarCurrents program was designed to increase the demand for renewable technologies in Michigan, and it is our hope that installations like this one do exactly that.”

The advanced lithium-ion batteries in the Chevrolet Volt are a key enabler of the car’s environmentally friendly mission, and not just because they can help the drivers achieve an emissions-free, all-electric driving range of up to 50 miles. Showcasing GM’s long-time dedication to recycling, 10 environmental and facilities engineers from General Motors, along with a group of local kids from Detroit’s Lasky Recreation Center, recently teamed up to hatch a new way to get the most from the Volt’s batteries: Converting scrap battery covers—which would have otherwise ended up getting tossed out with the trash—into nesting boxes for the wood ducks, screech owls and other bird life living at GM facilities across the country.

“This is a great example of finding an alternative use for something we receive in our assembly plant every day,” said John Bradburn, manager of waste-reduction efforts for GM. “Our employees think about waste differently than most … they view it as a challenge to keep items in their use phase.”

And this isn’t the first time the Volt has extended its ecologically sound approach to the auto industry beyond the road. Earlier this year, GM announced it had developed a way to take the plastic boom material being used to soak up oil from the Gulf of Mexico and then recycle it into parts found under the Volt’s hood. This effort is expected to keep more than 100,000 pounds of plastic waste out of landfills this year alone.

“This was purely a matter of helping out,” added John Bradburn. “If sent to a landfill, these materials would have taken hundreds of years to begin to break down, and we didn’t want to see the spill further impact the environment. We knew we could identify a beneficial reuse of this material given our experience.”

One of the world’s premiere providers of information about the energy industry—Hart Energy—recently honored General Motors with its Energy and Environmental Excellence Award for the automaker’s progress in the sustainable use of global natural resources and reducing its environmental footprint.

A key to achieving this honor? GM’s comprehensive approach to greening the auto industry. This naturally includes building high-efficiency new products like the Chevrolet Volt—capable of delivering up to 50 miles of all-electric, no-emissions driving—and the Chevrolet Cruze, which can achieve 42 mpg in highway driving. But significantly, the automaker’s efforts also extend to how those vehicles are being built in the first place.

For example, oil-soaked material from cleanup work in the Gulf of Mexico is being used to make parts for the Volt, while recycled denim from worn blue jeans is being repurposed for the sound-deadening insulation in the Cruze.

The company recently achieved another environmental landmark as well. In 2008, GM dedicated itself to ensuring 50 percent of its facilities worldwide were landfill-free by the end of last year, a goal that automaker has now surpassed. A total of 76 (52 percent) of its facilities reached this status in 2010, meaning that all waste generated from their normal operations was being reused, recycled or converted to energy. This includes some 2.5 million tons of waste material last year alone. And as a result of its dedication to recycling, GM estimates it prevented the equivalent of 8.4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere.

“It’s all about being creative and lean, and rethinking traditional manufacturing processes,” said John Bradburn, manager of GM’s waste-reduction efforts. “When you think of what it would take for a family of four to not produce any trash for a year, that’s quite a task. This is 76 sites around the world and about 70,000 employees committed to the cause.”

With just one look at the car’s exquisite exterior finish, customers can tell the all-new Chevrolet Cruze was designed with incredible attention to detail. But what they might not realize is that an equally incredible effort went into achieving that appearance.

Every color that adorns the outside of the 2011 Cruze is the fruit of at least five years of real-world environmental testing in the surprisingly harsh climate of south Florida. There, sun and saltwater, along with heat and humidity, can combine to test the shine and durability of even the toughest paints.

“We have panels nearing 10 years of constant exposure,” said Maureen Midgley, executive director of Global Paint & Polymer Engineering at General Motors. “It’s remarkable to hold a panel with a painted surface that looks like new, after all that time has passed.”

Of course, achieving this kind of performance is no easy task: The paint job on the Cruze actually relies on five separate layers of finish, including an electrically charged powder-primer coat that clings to the car’s body like a magnet and also is more environmentally friendly than traditional liquid primers. Then comes an electrodeposition primer and a crystalline zinc-based conversion coating. Only after these layers are applied is the car ready to show its true colors—thanks to a base coat that contains the appropriate pigment and adds a light-reflecting sparkle to the finish. Finally, to provide a premium lustrous shine and mirror-like finish, a high-quality clearcoat top layer is applied to the car.

And all the work is done in a thoroughly state-of-the-art environment. In fact, GM recently invested $160 million in renovating the paint shop where the Cruze is built—at the company’s Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio—to create one of the most advanced paint facilities in the country. The end result, according to Midgely, is “a flawless finish and consistent color that lasts for the life of the car.”

To find out for yourself, be sure to check out the Cruze at a local Chevrolet dealership today.

* * *

Stay current with the latest Chevrolet news by subscribing to this blog now.