'By purchasing green electricity directly and using photovoltaic for self-owned power generation, Volvo Taizhou factory has achieved 100% carbon neutralization of electric energy.' Recently, Falk Las Oskar, general manager of Volvo Car Taizhou Factory, said in an interview with China Business News. At present, Volvo Taizhou factory mainly produces Volvo XC40, XC40 Recharge pure electric vehicles, etc. About 80% of the production capacity is used for electric vehicle production, and the first battery workshop of Volvo cars outside Europe is also built.
According to the previous research results of the International Clean Transportation Committee (ICCT), although the carbon emissions of electric vehicles are less in use, the carbon emissions of their manufacturing process are indeed higher than those of traditional fuel vehicles. This gap is mainly due to the extensive use of aluminum body and battery production process in electric vehicles.
Affected by the above factors, with the improvement of the scale of production and sales of electric vehicles, compared with traditional fuel vehicles, carbon emissions in automobile manufacturing have become one of the core concerns of the automobile industry to achieve overall carbon neutrality.
Globally, multinational companies such as Daimler, Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Bosch, etc. have put forward their own carbon-neutral targets, and almost all of them mention carbon emission reduction measures in production. According to statistics, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Audi, Renault and General Motors have also put forward a timetable for achieving carbon neutrality in factories. Among them, Volvo plans to take the lead in achieving zero carbon emissions in manufacturing by 2025 and zero climate load by 2040.
'Green energy determines the carbon emissions of the upstream manufacturing end of automobiles and road traffic, and the three parties must cooperate in all directions to promote the realization of the' double carbon 'goal.' Wang Hewu, deputy secretary-general of China Electric Vehicle committee of 100, told the media that low-carbon automobile manufacturing should be realized based on green energy supply. The factory can improve the use ratio of green energy by building photovoltaic wind power system internally and purchasing green power externally.
Oskar told reporters that the method adopted by Volvo Taizhou factory is similar to the above method, that is, cooperating with some suppliers to purchase green electricity directly, and Volvo Chengdu and Daqing factories have implemented similar measures. In addition, Taizhou factory also uses photovoltaic for self-owned power generation, and the roof of the factory is covered by photovoltaic panels. At the same time, it also uses photovoltaic panels on a large scale in the parking lot and the whole vehicle delivery yard. At present, the utilization rate of clean energy in this factory is 46%.
However, there is still a gap between the carbon neutralization of electric energy and the real carbon neutralization of factories. Oskar pointed out that Volvo's factory carbon neutrality means that the recorded greenhouse gas emissions did not increase net due to the electricity and heating used by the factory. In the heating system, Volvo is also considering the use of biomass energy or green electricity to drive heating, which will also help it achieve carbon neutrality in production and operation on a global scale by 2025. In order to achieve Volvo's long-term goal of zero-load climate, the whole supply chain needs to be considered, for example, the purchasing department should achieve better cooperation with suppliers.
Finally, Oskar told reporters that although the cost of direct purchase of green electricity will be several percentage points higher, on the whole, the cost is relatively balanced. If considering the long term, it still hopes to use its own energy in the factory, which is also the solution that it needs to explore for the future.