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There she goes again. In recent years, General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra has shaped the automaker into a renewable energy influencer with an impact on the US energy landscape that extends beyond the factory walls. Apparently she was just getting started. The company has just announced a new carbon-cutting initiative that sets a 100% renewable energy goal by 2025. Yes, 2025. Not 2035, or even 2030. It’s 2025 or bust.

Coming from one of the top industrial employers in the US, the announcement validates President Biden’s ambitious climate goals even as Republicans in Congress continue to hit the kill switch on climate action.

GM Hearts Renewable Energy For Everybody

Barra doesn’t get nearly as much publicity as some other auto industry execs, so before we get into her latest renewable energy plan, let’s take a quick look back at the renewable energy theme she has established for GM.

The basic premise is pretty simple. Rather than focusing on renewable energy projects that only benefit the company’s carbon profile, GM is part of a broader corporate movement to spur renewable energy investments that provide whole-of-economy benefits and influence consumer behavior. Cutting costs for everyone while increasing access and improving reliability across the grid are the end goals.

In 2016 GM joined the global RE100 clean power collaborative and another big step occurred in 2019, when the company became a founding member of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, a US organization that leverages corporate purchasing power to accelerate economy-wide decarbonization.

The initial REBA goal was 60 gigawatts of new renewables by 2025. GM helped get the ball rolling in 2019 by putting in for the equivalent of 300,000 megawatt-hours in new wind energy through the Michigan utility DTE.

In a convo with CleanTechnica that year, Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of Sustainable Energy and Supply Reliability, explained that the DTE deal reflects the tandem transformation of both the auto industry and the utility industry, and the adaptation of consumers to the new energy landscape.

Renewable Energy & Consumer Behavior

When the topic turns to the auto industry, the new energy landscape, and consumer behavior, attention naturally turns to electric vehicle charging.

GM had EV charging and consumer behavior on the top of its mind when it introduced the Chevy Volt gas-electric hybrid in 2010. The Volt enabled car buyers to dip a toe in the 100% EV experience while clinging to the safety net of a gas tank at a time when battery technology was limited and charging stations were relatively scarce.

More recently GM has begun pivoting to a 100% EV future, and that doesn’t just mean selling the cars. Providing consumers with access to both charging stations and renewable energy is a key part of GM’s plan.

In 2020, for example, GM announced a new 500,000 megawatt-hour solar energy commitment through DTE, and it hooked up with the company EVgo to install more than 2,700 public fast charging stations around the country. Earlier this year GM also inked a deal to splash digital EV advertising all over Volta charging stations in key markets, aimed at reaching 70 million potential car buyers.

More Renewable Energy For The Clean Car Of The Future

GM’s triple-whammy approach of electric cars, renewable energy, and charging stations is getting picked up by utilities that are eager to sell more kilowatts. The gigantic utility Xcel Energy, for example, has just established a new incentive program to encourage its ratepayers to buy more electric vehicles.

The problem is that Excel’s stable of power plants still runs on a heavy dose of fossil energy, and that’s where the new GM renewable energy initiative comes in.

Today’s 100% clean power announcement by GM includes a partnership with the carbon tracking and energy management firm TimberRock. The idea is to leverage energy storage and variable demand to squeeze the maximum amount of renewable energy available on the grid for GM facilities.

In addition, GM expects to expand the carbon tracking feature to its electric vehicles. That will enable the company to prioritize its renewable energy purchasing activity for maximum impact on EV charging.

EV carbon tracking is a key new element in the climate action game, because Xcel is not alone. The US grid is still very much in a transitional period, with a heavy reliance on natural gas and coal for power generation. The very success of the EV revolution could bog down decarbonization goals in a sea of juiced-up demand for kilowatts as millions of EVs hit the road and plug into charging stations.

If all goes according to plan, the TimberRock partnership will help dampen the impact of EV sales on power plant emissions by enabling GM to target its power purchases strategically, in order to help ensure that EV battery charging takes maximum advantage of renewables on the grid.

GM’s work with TimberRock dates back to 2011, when the two companies paired to build a lone solar-powered EV charging station at General Motors’ Allison Transmission Plant in Maryland. The new carbon tracking partnership takes that relationship into next-level decarbonization territory.

GM Comes Out Swinging For Renewables

As for the timing of the announcement, it follows on the heels of a salvo that GM fired off on Tuesday, apparently aimed at Republican obstructionists in Congress and the two Democratic holdouts against President Biden’s climate action plans.

“General Motors applauds those who have worked tirelessly to advance the Build Back Better Plan, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, and urges Congress and the Administration to move forward legislation that will bring critical improvements to the country,” GM wrote.

GM also gently reminded legislators that the end goal of decarbonization is to fend off catastrophic climate change.

“General Motors believes we can help create a world that is safe and sustainable, where future generations can thrive,” the company wrote, while taking note of its plans to “achieve a clean and equitable transition to an all-electric future.”

“But we can’t do it alone,” GM warned, underscoring the need for strong federal action.

Placing itself firmly in the camp of President Biden, the company concluded that “General Motors looks forward to joining the President, Congress and the American people in celebrating enactment of legislation that creates a pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-sustainability future.”

Whelp, Here’s To Going It Alone

In another interesting bit of auto industry timing, earlier this week Ford also unleashed a massive, history making new EV manufacturing and workforce training announcement that supports the President’s plan for rapid decarbonization and new green jobs. The Ford announcement includes a vast new carbon neutral campus in Tennessee, powered partly with local renewable energy.

Together, the GM and Ford announcements put more pressure on legislators to act.

That could be too little, too late. Democrats in the House of Representatives have a sufficient majority to pass legislation, but the Senate is a different story.

The likelihood of getting enough Republican Senators on board to break a filibuster is unicorn-level small. Democrats could still manage to make some progress by exercising their slim 51-vote majority through the reconciliation process, except as of this writing they can only count on 49 votes.

For those of you not following the news, the two Democratic holdouts are West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

I know, right? Well, that’s the way the Senate works. If voters in other states vote out their Republican senators and replace them with Democratic senators who support Democratic presidents, the names Manchin and Sinema would quickly fade into the dustbin of history. As things stand, they appear destined to join the climate obstruction hall of fame right alongside the usual suspects.

Meanwhile, Ford and GM seem determined to follow through on their EV and renewable energy plans no matter what Congress does, though both companies are members of the corporate organization Business Roundtable, which is reportedly lobbying against the reconciliation bill.

Go figure! If you have any thoughts about that, drop us a note in the comment thread — and stay tuned for word on Stellantis, the third member of the Big 3 legacy auto-making club.

Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.

Photo: Chevy Bolt EV by Tina Casey.

 

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Day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025 [Gallery]

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Day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025 [Gallery]

Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!

In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.

Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.

Stay tuned for more!

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Tesla sold 5,000 Cybertrucks Q2, Optimus is in chaos, plus: the Infinity Train!

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Tesla sold 5,000 Cybertrucks Q2, Optimus is in chaos, plus: the Infinity Train!

The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!

We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.


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Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries

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Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries

Tesla has launched its new Oasis Supercharger, the long-promised EV charging station of the future, with a solar farm and off-grid batteries.

Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to the Supercharger stations, and CEO Elon Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.

While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.

Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:

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All of these pieces have been in place for years, and Tesla has now discontinued the Powerpack in favor of the Megapack. The Supercharger network is also transitioning to V4 stations.

Yet, solar and battery deployment haven’t accelerated much in the decade since Musk made that comment, but it is finally happening.

Last year, Tesla announced a new project called ‘Oasis’, which consists of a new model Supercharger station with a solar farm and battery storage enabling off-grid operations in Lost Hills, California.

Tesla has now unveiled the project and turned on most of the Supercharger stalls:

The project consists of 168 chargers, with half of them currently operational, making it one of the largest Supercharger stations in the world. However, that’s not even the most notable aspect of it.

The station is equipped with 11 MW of ground-mounted solar panels and canopies, spanning 30 acres of land, and 10 Tesla Megapacks with a total energy storage capacity of 39 MWh.

It can be operated off-grid, which is the case right now, according to Tesla.

With off-grid operations, Tesla was about to bring 84 stalls online just in time for the Fourth of July travel weekend. The rest of the stalls and a lounge are going to open later this year.

Electrek’s Take

This is awesome. A bit late, but awesome. This is what charging stations should be like: fully powered by renewable energy.

Unfortunately, it will be much harder to open those stations in the future due to legislation that Trump and the Republican Party have just passed, which removes incentives for solar and energy storage, adds taxes on them, and removes incentives to build batteries – all things that have helped Tesla considerably over the last few years.

The US is likely going to have a few tough years for EV adoption and renewable energy deployment.

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