General Motors is contracting with NorthStar Clean Energy on two new solar plants in Michigan, a combined 300 megawatts the automaker expects will power three of its factories.
The sites are in Branch County and St. Clair County, and GM has earmarked 92% of that capacity, The Detroit News reported Thursday. Cassandra Garber said the projects are expected to generate enough energy for Factory Zero, Flint Assembly and Lansing Delta Township Assembly. She also called the plants GM's largest ever clean-energy project.
Branch County and Lake Iris
The package is two projects, not one field. A utility-scale solar plant is planned in Branch County. In St. Clair County, the plan is the Lake Iris Solar Project. NorthStar Clean Energy is developing both, and GM will be the primary customer.
Primary, here, has a number on it. GM has earmarked 92% of the sites' combined capacity, which comes to 276 of the 300 megawatts. Garber described the projects together, not plant by plant. The expectation she stated is that they will generate enough electricity for Factory Zero, Flint Assembly and Lansing Delta Township Assembly.
Capacity is not the same figure as annual output. A report from rallies.ai put generation at about 539,000 megawatt-hours a year and described the facilities as a $550 million investment. It also said the commercial arrangement is a virtual power purchase agreement, with GM as the main customer.
The Same Developer, an Earlier Deal
NorthStar is an offshoot of the company behind Michigan utility Consumers Energy. The corporate tie is a utility. The customer on these two plants is an automaker, and the developer is already a counterparty.
In August 2024, GM announced a 15-year renewable-energy purchase agreement with NorthStar for three assembly plants. The project was Newport Solar in Newport, Arkansas, rated at 180 megawatts. It was planned to support Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Lansing Grand River Assembly in Michigan, and Wentzville Assembly in Missouri. GM described that agreement as its largest power purchase deal yet.
The Michigan plants are 120 megawatts larger on combined capacity, and the superlative has shifted. In 2024 the company was talking about its biggest power purchase. On Thursday, Garber called the Branch County and Lake Iris projects GM's largest ever clean-energy project. Those aren't the same sentence, and the factory lists aren't the same list.
Lansing Delta Township is the name that appears twice. The Newport plan paired it with Lansing Grand River and Wentzville. The new expectation pairs it with Factory Zero and Flint Assembly. Grand River and Wentzville are absent from Garber's account of the Michigan plants. Factory Zero and Flint were absent from the 2024 roster.
Goals That Run Past This Contract
The procurement sits under targets GM has already published. The company has a goal of becoming carbon neutral in its products and operations by 2040, and it aims to cut Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions 72% by 2035 from a 2018 baseline, ESG Dive reported.
Scope 1 is direct operational emissions. Scope 2 is purchased energy. The Michigan contract is an electricity deal for factories, so it sits on that second ledger. The 2040 goal is wider. It includes products, not only the power running three assembly plants.
In 2022, GM said it had finalized the agreements needed to procure 100% renewable electricity for all its U.S. sites by the end of 2025. That was a claim about contracts arranged for a companywide electricity target. The deal reported Thursday is later, and narrower: two counties, 92% of a 300-megawatt pair, and three factories Garber said the projects should be able to power.
The announcements line up a developer and one assembly plant. NorthStar is on the 2024 Arkansas contract and on the Michigan plants reported Thursday. Lansing Delta Township was part of the Newport plan, alongside Lansing Grand River and Wentzville, and it is named again for solar in Branch and St. Clair counties. Factory Zero and Flint Assembly are the new names on the list.
