The General Motors plant in Arlington, Texas makes more than 1,000 SUV’s a day. While these vehicles tend to burn more gas, the plant where they’re made will be entirely powered by wind energy by the end of 2018.

Threlkeld: “We’ll power that facility with one hundred percent renewable energy.”

That’s Rob Threlkeld, manager of renewable energy at General Motors. He says G.M. is committed to powering all of its operations with clean energy within 33 years – a plan called “RE-100”.

The Arlington facility already gets about half of its power from wind, and reaching 100 percent sets G.M. on its path to the larger goal.

Threlkeld: “The Arlington assembly plant’s one of our largest assembly plants that we’ve got globally, both from a manufacturing footprint as well as electricity load. So it seemed like a good location to take a look at establishing our first facility that would actually meet our RE100 commitment.”

G.M. is also working to make their manufacturing process more energy efficient. And at other locations, G.M. is using solar and landfill gas on its road to 100 percent clean energy.

G.M. has a long way to go, but for such a large, manufacturing-intensive company, the new wind project is an important milestone.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Image graphic: Created by David McCarthy.