empty auto plants litter u.s. landscape - residential energy storage systems

Henry Ford's masterpiece
Sun Tzu came to the closed car factory and boasted that he planned to revive the huge open space: Investors will transform it into a modern factory that makes solar panels and high solar cells.
Technology energy systems, not urban cars and Thunderbirds.
"I can't think of a better way to reuse the facility," Bill Ford said during a visit to the former Wixom Assembly Plant in September.
A few months later, a plan that only exists on paper is still waiting for final approval.
Factories are still vacant, just like dozens of other large auto factories in the country that have never been redeveloped.
An AP analysis shows the scope of the problem: Since 1980, three automakers in Detroit and their largest suppliers have closed 128 manufacturing plants in North America, three out of five.
Popular news Google cloud service disruption missing connadik state mom Virginia Beach shooting protesters interrupted during Harris peak these roaring economic activity engines hired thousands of people
Paid union members and white people on the assembly line-
Led the engineer in an office with windows upstairs.
The 128 factories were paid by 196,000 workers when they were closed.
Today, there are only 36,500 people working in those places that have been redeveloped, and of the restored factories there are only three factories where the number of employees matches or exceeds their past number of car manufacturers.
The rest is the concrete Prairie or steel giant waiting for reuse or crushing balls, most of which have no real prospects for new uses.
"The cost will be borne by the next generation," said James Rubinstein, a professor at the University of Miami, Oxford, Ohio, who studied the United StatesS.
The car factory is closed and open.
"This is the buried children and grandchildren --off workers.
They have no chance in these communities.
"When the factory was closed decades ago, many workers had just moved to a new factory nearby.
But the sharp cuts in the auto industry mean these jobs may never come back.
"These are real closures and are not replaced," said Rubenstein . ".
It is difficult to exaggerate the economic impact of these large manufacturing centers.
Twenty years ago, General Motors
Employs up to 20,000 workers in a two-person range
A mile round the Detroit suburb of Pontiac.
The area includes assembly plants, administrative offices and engineering and research laboratories.
With a factory that produced Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks shut down this fall, the final jobs disappeared.
"There is a lot of collateral damage due to the closure of the plant," GM spokesman Dan Flores said . ".
"Some of these properties are located in communities with little interest in the real estate market and it is difficult to rebuild.
"GM has closed 14 factories in the past year as it struggled with bankruptcy protection and said on Monday that some of the closed factories could reopen because it can't be fast enough
GM North American President Mark Reuss told reporters at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit that in the short term, the company will try to increase the production of existing factories.
Leaving GM in 1973, Argene Saylor, who bought a bar near the Pontiac factory, said business was down at least 60% from three years ago.
A film production plant is expected to take over some GM properties across the street, but it faces delays.
Seller doesn't want the film industry to bring back thousands of jobs,
The room was just a crowd at the Selle bar or a family left vacant, boarding --
The house is nearby.
"If the film industry really moves in, it helps some people, but it won't get the town back," said 69-year-old aproned say, in a bar, this is mainly a frequent visitor to the past of plants.
"I don't know what to bring back.
"Of the three more factories employed today than when they were closed, only one is still used for manufacturing.
General Motors bus factory in St
There were 200 employees at the time of the announcement of the closure; Nova Bus Corp.
There are now 700 employees employed there.
The other is a genetically modified plant in St.
Louis closed 4,600 workers in 1980.
It is estimated that 15,000 people now work in a distribution agency.
Ford is located in Milpitas, California.
The factory closed in 1983, with nearly 2,400 hours of workers.
It is now home to large shopping malls and other businesses in the Bay Area that employ a total of about 3,300 workers.
"It's not like you knocked down the local bookstore," said Oakland County Chief Executive L . "
Brooks Patterson, the county has lost four factories since 1980.
"These are huge complexes that require huge investment to get them back into production.
"There are many obstacles.
The decline in the domestic auto industry was seen during the slowdown in commercial property.
Many closed factories are far away from the city center, and paint waste, heavy metals or other hazardous materials from almost all factories exceed regulatory restrictions.
The cost of cleaning up these toxins is as high as $300,000 per acre and takes years.
Former powertrain plant at GM in Massena, New YorkY.
The workers used PCBs for about 20 years and dumped the runoff into the neighboring St.
Lawrence and the River l'aquite
It was named the Superfund website in the 1980 s, and the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there is still about $0. 15 billion to be done before land is available.
It is not clear whether the funds reserved for the clean-up work during GM's bankruptcy will pay the bill.
Even if a site is ready for redevelopment, few businesses need the huge space they need to make cars and trucks.
In Atlanta, investors bought GM's Lakewood Assembly Plant and planned to transform it into a recycling center.
The project employs about 100 employees and about 40 acres of land on site remains an open cement board.
"At the end of the day, I think it's quite successful, but probably not doing what they want for the community," says Byron Copman . ", A veteran in the recycling industry is also part of the original and current investor base.
At Wixom, officials hope to use the plant to build large buildings
Scale solar power stations and energy-
Storage systems by the end of 2011.
But even that ambitious plan
It depends on the federal loan guarantee that has not yet been passed --
Less than half of the available space will be used.
Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Company
He acknowledged that it was difficult to find projects suitable for closed factories, although most had special access to railways and highways.
"I think you have to think about any development on a large scale, which is often difficult to do, especially in this economy," Ford said . ".
This is an inherent challenge.
The size of plants.
"Even some obvious success is limited.
In Oklahoma City, the county leased an old GM factory to a nearby Tinker Air Force Base. But two-
Of the 3,000 people who will eventually work there, 30 have already been employed at the base.
This means that many of the 2,200 auto workers who lost their jobs in the factory in 2006 did not wish to find a job there.
This experience taught the city to control their expectations.
Later this year, Chrysler will close an engine plant in Wis Kenosha.
850 people are unemployed.
As early as 1988, the company closed a factory in the town and cut 5,500 jobs.
The city spent $50 million to dismantle old buildings along Lake Michigan, clean up environmental problems and lay roads on the streets.
There are now about 350 apartment units, two museums, a lakeside promenade, a park and a marina.
While technically successful, less than 100 people are working there now, and most of them are working behind the checkout counter or the waiting desk.
"Work is gone, so we spent 100year-
"There are a lot of old factories with environmental problems, clean it up and turn it into a residential area worth $0. 15 billion," said Mayor Keith Bosman . ".
"We have a unique opportunity to make very good things from something very bad at the time.