Aug. 21--General Motors Corp. today announced plans to install 8,700 solar panels on the roof of its Powertrain Baltimore Transmission plant in White Marsh by spring 2009 through a partnership with Beltsville's SunEdison LLC, the continent's largest solar-energy provider.

The 300,000 square-foot project will be one of the biggest on the East Coast, generating about 20 percent of the plant's electricity -- enough to power up to 150 households.

The proposal -- which GM says will reduce its utility bill, though they can't say by how much -- is part of the Detroit company's efforts to cut costs and lessen its impact on the environment. SunEdison, which is negotiating a possible state incentive package, will bear the entire cost of the project and sell the power it generates to GM, which can then claim yet another eco-friendly move.

"GM has the ability to make a significant positive impact," John R. Buttermore, GM Powertrain's vice president of global manufacturing, said during a news conference held on the plant's lawn this morning.

The automobile maker already has several of the country's largest rooftop solar-panel installations on its buildings and plans to have the world's largest by the end of the year at a car-assembly plant in Spain. GM's Baltimore County plant also recently became the first in the company to reach "landfill-free status," meaning it no longer sends its waste to landfills, but instead recycles or reuses all of it.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, who drives a GM Hybrid Tahoe, praised the development yesterday and its American roots -- the energy is generated and used here, "not being pumped out of oil fields in Iraq," he said.

tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

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