Way back in September 2020, GM Authority reported that General Motors was setting up a solar array in Arkansas to power a few of its facilities. Now, it appears as though the project is complete and operational.
NorthStar Clean Energy has announced that Newport Solar – a 180 MW solar farm designed to generate renewable electricity for GM operations in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) – has officially opened. Notably, this electricity will power the GM Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant in Michigan, the GM Lansing Grand River Assembly plant in Michigan, and the GM Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri. The automaker signed a 15-year, renewable energy purchase agreement with NorthStar Clearn Energy.
It’s worth noting that this opening marks the launch of one of the largest single-axis photovoltaic projects in Arkansas.
“NorthStar is committed to helping our customers reach their sustainability and business goals and the Newport Solar project demonstrates how our approach enables companies like General Motors to achieve both,” NorthStar Clean Energy President Brian Hartmann remarked in a prepared statement. “The collaboration with GM exemplifies our shared obligation to creating a future powered by renewable energy.”
Interestingly, this new facility is expected to produce roughly 410,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy every year, or the equivalent of powering more than 30,000 Arkansas homes.
“By expanding our renewable electricity portfolio, we are taking a major step forward in reducing our carbon footprint and advancing our broader sustainability goals,” GM Global Energy Strategy Director Rob Threlkeld emphasized. “This facility not only supports our renewable electricity strategy, but also demonstrates our dedication to a sustainable future for all. We are proud to help lead the way in sustainable practices and continue driving positive change.”
Notably, this fresh solar project is the result of growing efforts for innovative and collaborative sourcing between the Detroit-based automaker and NorthStar Clean Energy. In addition, this facility is a key component in The General’s strategy to reduce its energy emissions globally, which includes improving energy efficiency, sourcing renewable electricity, utilizing more reliable power, enhancing supply reliability, and making significant global investments in renewable energy collaborators.
GM claims to now have sourcing agreements from 17 renewable energy plants in 11 states which, according to BloombergNEF, makes it the auto industry’s largest buyers of renewable energy by capacity.
Be sure to subscribe to GM Authority for GM business news, GM green news, and more obsessive-compulsive GM news coverage.
Comments
A lot of acreage that could have a forest of trees providing shade and oxygen.
Utilizing more reliable power, it what world ! How many acres have been used up. Cites are concerned with the black jungle of blacktop and black roofs how about theses things contributing to warming.
Exactly. Why not put the solar panels over top of the Parking lots in the cities and suburbs so we are not destroying valuable farm land and forest land potential? Covered parking and solar power in an area that is already sucking up the suns heat.
180MW my butt! I’ve driven by some of the larger western wind farms, all claiming to be 750+MW, but you look at the transmformers for them and they are way smaller than the 860 coal plant by my house. That’s cause they size them by adding up all the generators for headlines, but in reality not run all turbines in nearly stagnant wind, and most the time run 30% or less. That’s all the transformers can take. Same with solar. They tend to break them up into groups facing east, south and west. That way your not screwed in the morning, evening or winter, and can reliably put out ~30-20% of what your rated for most days.
Big CAT 80MW diesel built here as a backup I wonder?
How much did it cost? How long will it last? Without that data we can’t determine if there’s really any savings.
Solar panels have half life defamation kinda like atomic isotopes. A typical solar panel has a half life of 8-12 years depending on how much sun they get (8 years in Texas, 12 in rainy Seattle, an abysmal 5 if your in Death Valley) so in 10 years these will half half the output as of new. Will loose first 25% after 3.
I am not a huge proponent of solar and I think it is overstated. But you’ve gone the other way. I’ve had panels for around 19 years now. My panels are down around 15% from new. The people who sold them to me overstated things a bit, maybe 5% of what they produced. Silicon based panels are pretty tough. You may be thinking of the perkosyte(sp?) type. They do degrade quickly but are cheap to make. And I live in TX. What is true and I’m not sure how they will handle the problem is winter production will be around 50-70% of summer. Will they cut factory hours in winter? Nah, they’ll fire up the fossils. TX is looking at a bit of a problem this august. Wind does not pick up till around midnight and solar drops off around 7pm. So there is a mismatch between generation/consumption in the evenings. A multi-gigawatt mismatch that batteries cannot back. Current battery in TX runs around 1GW although they are adding. Anyway, long story short, there is a significant risk of rolling blackouts in the evenings in TX. So far a mild summer in TX, so hasn’t happened yet, but august is just beginning. Just take a look at ercot’s dashboard to see the graphs and how the evening gap of available versus consumption closes in the evenings. It will become a very different world if we get to use power only when the wind is blowing/sun is shining versus our current world of using power when WE want it. The latest PJM auction shows where this is heading. Your juice bill is going up. Alot.
Hope they have insurance for the next hail storm or severe thunderstorm.
Panels are pretty tough. Tougher than roofs actually. Mine have weathered several hail storms. I do agree though, waste of valuable farm land. Same issue I have with using ethanol. Turning edible products into fuel is dumb.
And by using farm land for solar, we need to ship more food by tanker ship from other countries.
Sounds very environmentally friendly.
Is this some kind of energy sharing/exchange program or is the electricity being generated in Arkansas actually being “cabled” to Michigan and Missouri? I know nothing about such things, but I would think the line loss would make ‘moving’ electricity 1000 miles rather inefficient.
The good news is now Hydrogen fuel is approaching LNG prices, and should be mainstream-capable in 5yrs.