Over the next month, Factory Five Racing will be installing a solar array on top of our manufacturing facility here in Wareham, MA. The resulting renewable solar energy will be powering our welding machines, laser cutter, and facility to excess in 9 of the 12 months here in New England. Work started this week, and we’ll keep you updated as the project goes on.
Most people don’t think of fuel efficiency/environmentalism when they think of a Factory Five, but the truth is that the cars we build have been used as a starting point for many award-winning electric or hybrid designs.
Hybrid-electric 818S built by West Philly High School was recognized by President Obama at the 2014 White House event “Maker Faire”. (Read more) Check out a few more cool green examples of alternate-powered Factory Fives at the end of this post.
Work began on Monday with the delivery of about half of more than 50 pallets of solar panels, racking, and electrical materials.
The panels will be mounted on the roof of Factory Five.
The weather here in New England broke just in time for work to begin. A few weeks ago, this entire area was a mountain of snow.
The electrical tie-in to the power grid is interesting since when we are not using the solar electricity, it will be fed into the power supply for the surrounding area.
The crew began to place the panel racking on top of the building.
The entire south face of Factory Five’s 40,000+ square-foot roof surface will be covered with solar panels.
Check out these alternate-powered Factory Fives. Each one of these cars full details and photos if you follow the subsequent link.
All-electric Factory Five 818 heads down Laguna Seca’s famous corkscrew. Customer Erik Hansen built this beautifully finished and completely functional all-electric 818S.
Erik’s electric 818S debuted at the 2014 SEMA Show, and was driven/tested by AutoBlog.com and Gas2.org. The white 818S is powered by an EV West electric drivetrain. Read more.
Simon Hauger and the students from West Philly High School showed their hybrid-electric 818 on the front lawn of The White House.
All-electric Factory Five ’33 Hot Rod built by SolidWorks and debuted at SEMA 2009. The car also headlined the SolidWorks World Convention in Anaheim, CA in 2010. Read more.
In 2011, Simon Hauger and the team at West Philly High School finished first at the Green Grand Prix beating all entries. The Factory Five GTM was powered by an electric front-wheel drive and bio-diesel rear-drive. The car averaged over 100 miles per gallonand was featured on the cover of Popular Mechanics receiving the 2011 Breakthrough Award! Read more.
The crew at Whitby Motorcars built this ’33 Hot Rod with an all-electric power plant with a 150-200 mile range per charge in 2011. Read more.
Update 04-06-15
The second week of work sees installation of the electrical panels and about 1/3 of the roof mounted solar array.
Factory Five Ops Director Nate Johnson (R) talks to site manager Steve about the schedule electrical tie-in.
During the warm months, we will be producing excess power from the roof mounted solar panels.
Stage 1 of the installation process involves the rack mounts quickly followed by bolting on the solar panels.
The entire surface of the south facing peaked roof (difficult to see the slope of the roof from this angle) will be covered with solar panels.
More updates will be given as the project goes along.