While seen as a joke, at first, on late night talk shows, the fact is that there are corporations that take into account how they are perceived on the environment, and one way is to invest in renewable power.

GM's Expansion, Energy Goals Hinge on Renewables' Power Lines

General Motors is calling for greater access to wind and solar power through expanded transmission lines to feed growing demand for clean electricity by its future factories and customers.

 From article, (General Motors is calling for greater access to wind and solar power through expanded transmission lines to feed growing demand for clean electricity by its future factories and customers.

Access to renewables is a factor in the company’s decisions about where to expand or build new facilities, Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy, told Bloomberg Environment.

Electric power lines delivering wind and solar power are not a constraint on growth today, but, between 2018 and 2050, new transmission connecting wind and solar farms to both GM factories and its customers—particularly those driving electric vehicles—will be critical for the company’s success, he said.

GM is one of the RE100 group of companies that have committed to obtaining 100 percent of their electricity from wind, solar, and other renewables. GM plans to go fully renewable by 2050 and expects 20 percent of its global electric power demand to be met with renewable energy by the end of 2018.

Corporate demand for renewable power is growing. Companies that are part of REBA, the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which includes GM, Walmart, and more than 100 other companies, plan to buy more than 60 gigawatts of renewable power by 2025. Only 9 gigawatts have been procured so far, according to the report.

The report estimates that if 90 percent of renewables transmission projects currently in development are built, they would meet 70 percent of the expected demand from REBA companies by 2025.

Some GM facilities are located close to high wind power production areas in Texas and Kansas, Threlkeld said, but additional transmission lines are needed to make buying renewable power for GM’s operations and customers elsewhere less costly in the long run.

Walmart, which is a RE100 and REBA member with a goal to obtain all its power from renewables, currently generates about half of the renewable energy it uses from solar panels and wind turbines built at its stores and other facilities. New transmission will be needed for the company to buy more renewable power.

“It’s certainly important in the sense that we recognize for us to meet our targets, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to install [enough] renewable energy at the store,” Mark Vanderhelm, Walmart’s vice president for energy, told Bloomberg Environment.)

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