GM Secures Enough Renewable Energy to Power US Facilities by 2025

(Credit: GM)

General Motors says it has finalized enough energy sourcing agreements needed to power all of its facilities in the United States with renewable energy by 2025.

With the deals in place, the automaker will achieve its goal of using all renewable energy in its US operations five years ahead of its updated 2030 target. GM also says by achieving its renewable energy goal, it will also avoid an estimated 1 million metric tons of emissions that would have been produced between 2025 and 2030.

GM originally set the all-renewable energy goal in 2016 and aimed to have it completed by 2050. The company revised that projection to 2025 last year.

GM now has renewable energy sourcing agreements from facilities in 10 states. The company says it is the largest energy purchaser in the automaking industry and that the deals have also resulted in more than $75 million of positive cash flow.

The energy deals include power purchase agreements for energy from wind farms in Indiana and Ohio, to power facilities in those states, Tennessee, Arkansas, and its home state of Michigan. Earlier in 2022, GM unveiled an agreement with Consumers Energy to power three automotive plants in Michigan with renewable energy.

The World Economic Forum says renewable energy is often the first step for corporations to tackle their greenhouse gas emissions. The WEF says there were more than 100 renewable energy purchasing deals in the US in 2020 with a capacity of more than 10 gigawatts.

Last year GM also partnered with General Electric to evaluate ways to improve the rare earth materials supply chain to increase resources for electric vehicle manufacturing and renewable energy production. The two also say they will work together to develop new technologies for electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Renewable sourcing is just one piece of energy transitions for GM, which plans to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new US light-duty vehicles by 2035. This month GM also announced a new energy business separate from automaking that will focus on energy management and technology.

The business, called GM Energy, will focus on microgrids, stationary storage, hydrogen fuel cells, solar products, bi-directional charring, and vehicle-to-grid applications, among a variety of software and technology tools. It will have commercial and residential offerings.

GM says its renewable energy approach goes beyond the sourcing of power supply. The company says its strategy also includes becoming more energy efficient throughout its operations, addressing intermittency, and advocating for policy. The latter two especially will help increase resilience and expand the use of technologies for microgrids, and help create a caron-free grid, GM says.

Additionally, GM has advocated for purchasing renewable energy across industries and in 2019 helped found the Clean Energy Buyers Association. It is the largest group of corporate renewable energy buyers in the US with more than 330 members and has a goal to increase market access and help organizations of all sizes with accessing renewable energy deals.