Green Options

An Italian company has announced plans to install the world’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic plant, with an energy capacity equivalent to the power needs of 5,000 households.

Solon SE will establish the facility at its Padua warehouse and truck-loading complex, generating an output of up to 15 megawatts when the sun is at its brightest.

The Reva Electric Car Company has announced plans to build the world’s largest factory for cheap all-electric cars, capable of a massive annual output of 30,000 units.

The Bangalore, India-based company hopes that after the Rs300m ($6.1m) facility begins production in the first quarter of next year, it will help to introduce green energy to the subcontinent’s rapidly growing automotive industry.

The Reva, a small hatchback powered by eight six-volt batteries, retails for a mega-competitive Rs350,000 in India and £7,500 ($12,200) in the UK, (where it is marketed under the G-Wiz brand), far less than most rival companies.

Speaking about the plan, Chetan Maini, Reva’s deputy chairman and chief technology officer said, “We are promoting a technology that holds the key to the global energy crisis.”

The United States has overtaken Germany to become the largest producer of wind energy in the world, generating enough capacity to eliminate the burning of 91 million barrels of oil per year.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), US wind producers enjoyed another record year of growth in 2008—the third in a row. The country now has an installed wind power capacity well in excess of 21,000 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to over 5.5 million American homes.

Earlier this week, the China Huaneng Group started building China’s largest ever solar power plant, a massive 166 Megawatt (MW) facility in the southern province of Yunnan.

The project, costing a total of 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), is scheduled to commence operations in 2010. According to the China Electricity Council, the company intends to expand its capacity for solar, wind and other clean energy projects to an impressive 10,000 MW by the end of the same year.