Automakers shifting to renewable energy
DETROIT — The Detroit Three automakers have taken actions to reduce their energy consumption to conserve on costs and help ensure a reliable energy supply as they move toward running their operations fully off renewable electricity sources in the coming years.
These efforts are cutting the need for hundreds of millions of kilowatt hours, preventing thousands of tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted and saving on millions of dollars in Michigan alone. That helps to alleviate demand on the electricity grid, benefiting consumers and southeast Michigan residents.
“To the extent that energy reduction overall is a good thing,” said Thac Nguyen, DTE Energy Co.’s manager of energy efficiency commercial and industrial large business customers, “now more than ever, DTE shares our customers’ goals with how energy is produced and how it’s consumed, and energy efficiency is at the very center of that effort.”
The automakers are investing millions of dollars into renewable energy in Michigan. Ford Motor Co. a year ago announced with DTE’s MIGreenPower program plans to add 650 megawatts of solar energy capacity that would grow the state’s total amount of installed solar energy by 70 percent by 2025; that’s when Ford’s Michigan operations will run with 100 percent renewably sourced electricity.
Ford’s operations in the rest of the world will follow by 2035, and the Dearborn automaker plans for emissions from its operations and the power it uses to be carbon neutral by 2050. The company is working on expanding those efforts to its suppliers as well but hasn’t given a target date for reductions around these indirect emissions known as “Scope 3.”
Stellantis NV — the maker of Jeep SUVs, Ram pickup
Charlotte Smith/Ford Motor Co./TNS trucks and other vehicles — followed Ford’s announcement with plans with DTE to add 400 megawatts of solar energy generation for its operations in southeast Michigan. After completion, the company will have reduced carbon emissions in North America by 50 percent and across its manufacturing facilities by 30 percent. By 2026, Stellantis says it will be able to attribute all electricity use at 70 manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites to solar.
The automaker says it will be carbon net-zero by 2038 with single-digit percentage compensation of remaining emissions that would use offsets. That would mandate 100 percent all-electric light duty and passenger car vehicles sales in the United States, according to Stellantis’ Corporate Social Responsibility report for 2022.
General Motors Co. also has made major commitments for renewable energy in Michigan. Last year, it said that by 2025 all of its U.S. operations will be powered by renewably sourced electricity, five years ahead of schedule. It has sourcing agreements from 16 renewable energy plants across 10 states and says it will be carbon neutral by 2040. It aspires to sell only all-electric vehicles by 2035.
These efforts will help the United States and Michigan to become leaders in decarbonization in the industry, though they’re behind other regions today. According to Stellantis’ CSR, 37 percent of its energy in North America is decarbonized. That’s compared to 49 percent in South America, where countries like Brazil rely on hydropower, and 72percent in Europe, where regulations have pushed for renewables. At Ford, all purchased electricity for manufacturing in Europe and Mexico is carbon-free.
Western tensions with Russia have prompted more investments in zero-emission