25.5% Of US Electricity Coming From Renewable Energy

Arvato Ontario Solar Power Plant advances sustainability with rooftop photovoltaic panels, PPA financing, and green electricity, generating 800,000 kWh annually to cut logistics emissions, reduce energy costs, and support carbon-neutral supply chain operations.

Key Points

A rooftop PV system under a PPA, supplying low-cost green power to Arvato's Ontario, CA distribution center.

✅ 1,160 panels produce 800,000 kWh of renewable power yearly

✅ PPA model avoids upfront costs and lowers electricity rates

✅ Cuts center emissions by 72%; 45% roof coverage

Arvato continues to invest consistently in the sustainability of its distribution centers. To this end, the first solar power plant in the focus market has now been commissioned on the roof of the distribution center in Ontario, California. The solar power plant has 1,160 solar panels and generates more than 800,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of green electricity annually. This reduces electricity costs and, with advances in battery storage, further cuts the logistics center's greenhouse gas emissions. Previously, the international supply chain and e-commerce service provider had converted five other distribution centers in the USA to green electricity.

The project started as early as November 2019 with an intensive site investigation. An extensive catalogue of measures and criteria had to be worked through to install and commission the solar power plant on the roof system. After a rigorous process involving numerous stakeholders, the new solar modules were installed in August 2022, similar to utility-scale deployments like the largest solar array in Washington seen recently. However, further approvals and permits were required before the solar system could be officially commissioned, a common step for solar power plants worldwide. Once official permission for the operation was granted, the switch could be flipped in February 2023, and production of environmentally friendly solar electricity could begin.

The photovoltaic system is operated under a Purchase Power Agreement (PPA), a model widely used in corporate renewable energy projects today. This unique financing mechanism is available in twenty-six U.S. states, including California. While a third-party developer installs, owns and operates the solar panels, Arvato purchases the electricity generated. This allows companies in the U.S. to support clean energy projects while buying low-cost electricity without having to finance upfront costs. "The PPA and the resulting benefits were quite critical to the success of this project," says Christina Greenwell, Microsoft AOC F&L Client Services Manager at Arvato, who managed the project from start to finish. "It allows us to reduce our electricity costs while supporting Bertelsmann's ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030."

The 1,160 solar panels were added to an existing system of 920 panels owned by the logistics center's landlord. In total, the panels now cover 45 percent of the roof space at the Ontario distribution center. The emissions generated by the distribution center are now reduced by 72 percent with the new solar panels and clean power generation. As Bertelsmann plans to switch all its sites worldwide to 100 percent green electricity, renewable energy certificates will, as seen when Bimbo Canada signed agreements to offset 100 percent of its electricity for its operations, offset the remaining emissions.

"The new solar power plant is a significant step on our path to carbon neutrality and demonstrates our commitment to finding innovative solutions that reduce our carbon footprint," said Mitat Aydindag, President of North America at Arvato. "All employees at the site are pleased that our Ontario distribution center is now a pioneer and is providing effective support in achieving our ambitious climate goal in 2030."

Similar facility-level efforts include the Bright Feeds Berlin solar project underscoring momentum across industrial operations.

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EU Renewable Energy Transition accelerates as solar and wind overtake gas, cutting coal reliance and boosting REPowerEU goals; falling electricity demand, hydro and nuclear recovery, and grid upgrades drive a cleaner, secure power mix.

Key Points

It is the EU's shift to solar and wind, surpassing gas and curbing coal to meet REPowerEU targets.

✅ Solar and wind supplied 22% of EU electricity in 2022.

✅ Gas fell behind; coal stayed near 16% with no major rebound.

✅ Demand fell; hydro and nuclear expected to recover in 2023.

European countries were forced to accelerate their renewable energy capacity after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked a global energy crisis amid a surge in global power demand that exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The EU’s REPowerEU plan aims to increase the share of renewables in final energy consumption overall to 45 percent by the end of the decade.

However, a new report by energy think tank Ember shows that the EU’s green energy transition is already making a significant difference. Solar and wind power generated more than a fifth (22 percent) of its electricity in 2022, pulling ahead of fossil gas (20 percent) for the first time, according to the European Electricity Review 2023.

Europe also managed to avoid resorting to emissions-intensive coal power for electricity generation as a consequence of the energy crisis, even as renewables to eclipse coal globally by mid-decade. Coal generated just 16 percent of the EU’s electricity last year, an increase of just 1.5 percentage points.

“Europe has avoided the worst of the energy crisis,” says Ember’s Head of Data Insights, Dave Jones. “The shocks of 2022 only caused a minor ripple in coal power and a huge wave of support for renewables. Any fears of a coal rebound are now dead.”

Ember’s analysis reveals that the EU faced a "triple crisis" in the electricity sector in 2022, as stunted hydro and nuclear output compounded the shock. "Just as Europe scrambled to cut ties with its biggest supplier of fossil gas, it faced the lowest levels of hydro and nuclear (power) in at least two decades, which created a deficit equal to 7 percent of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2022," the report says. A severe drought across Europe, French nuclear outages as well as the closure of German nuclear outlets were responsible for the drop.

Solar power shines through
However, the record surge in solar and wind power generation helped compensate for the nuclear and hydropower deficit. Solar power rose the fastest, growing by a record 24 percent last year which almost doubled its previous record, with wind growing by 8.6 percent.

Forty-one gigawatts of solar power capacity was added in 2022, almost 50 percent more than the year before. Ember says that 20 EU countries achieved solar records in 2022, with Germany, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and France adding the most solar capacity.

The Netherlands and Greece generated more power from solar than coal for the first time. Greece is also predicted to reach its 2030 solar capacity target by the end of this year.

EU electricity demand falls
A significant drop in electricity use in 2022 also helped lessen the impact of Europe’s energy crisis. Demand fell by 7.9 percent in the last quarter of the year, despite the continent heading into winter. This was close to the 9.6 percent fall experienced when Europe was in Covid-19 lockdown in mid-2020.

"Mild weather was a deciding factor, but affordability pressures likely played a role, alongside energy efficiency improvements and citizens acting in solidarity to cut energy demand in a time of crisis," the report says.

A ‘coal comeback’ fails to materialize
The almost 8 percent fall in electricity demand in the last three months of 2022 was the main factor in the 9 percent fall in gas and coal generation during that time. However, Ember says that had France’s nuclear plants been operating at the same capacity as 2021, the EU’s fossil fuel generation would have fallen twice as fast in the last quarter of 2022.

The report says: "Coal power in the EU fell in all four of the final months of 2022, down 6 percent year-on-year. The 26 coal units placed on emergency standby for winter ran at an average of just 18 percent capacity. Despite importing 22 million tonnes of extra coal throughout 2022, the EU only used a third of it."

Gas generation was very similar compared to 2021, up just 0.8 percent. It made up 20 percent of the EU electricity mix in 2022, up from 19 percent the year before.

Fossil fuel generation set to fall in 2023
Ember says low-emissions sources like solar and wind power will continue to accelerate in 2023 and hydropower and French nuclear capacity will also recover. With electricity demand likely to continue to fall, it estimates that fossil fuel-generation "could plummet" by 20 percent in 2023.

Gas generation will fall the fastest, Ember predicts, as it will remain more expensive than coal over the next few years. "The large fall in gas generation means the power sector is likely to be the fastest falling segment of gas demand during 2023, helping to bring calm to European gas markets as Europe adjusts to life without Russian gas."

In order to stick to the 2015 Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, Ember says Europe must fully decarbonize its power system by the mid-2030s. Its modeling shows that this is possible without compromising the security of supply.

However, the report says "making this vision a reality will require investment above and beyond existing plans, as well as immediate action to address barriers to the expansion of clean energy infrastructure. Such a mobilization would boost the European economy, cement the EU’s position as a climate leader and send a vital international message that these challenges can be overcome."

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General Motors EV Hiring expands software development, engineering, and IT roles for electric vehicles, Ultium batteries, and autonomous tech, offering remote jobs, boosting diversity and inclusion, and accelerating zero-emission mobility and customer experience initiatives.

Key Points

GM plan to hire 3,000 software, engineering, and IT staff to speed EV programs, remote work, and customer experience.

✅ 3,000 hires in software, engineering, IT

✅ Focus on EVs, Ultium batteries, autonomous tech

✅ Remote roles, diversity, inclusion priorities

General electrical safety involves practices and procedures designed to prevent electric shock, arc flash, and other hazards associated with electrical systems. Whether at home, in the workplace, or industrial environments, following established safety guidelines helps protect people, property, and equipment from electrical accidents. General Motors plans to hire 3,000 new employees largely focused on software development as the company accelerates its plans for electric vehicles, the automaker announced Monday.

GM said the jobs will be focused on engineering, design and information technology “to increase diversity and inclusion and contribute to GM’s EV and customer experience priorities.” The hiring is expected through the first quarter of 2021, as the company addresses EV adoption challenges in key markets. Many of the positions will be remote as GM begins to offer “more remote opportunities than ever before,” the company said.

“As we evolve and grow our software expertise and services, it’s important that we continue to recruit and add diverse talent,” GM President Mark Reuss said in a release. “This will clearly show that we’re committed to further developing the software we need to lead in EVs, enhance the customer experience and become a software expertise-driven workforce.”

General Motors CEO on third-quarter earnings, rise in demand for trucks and more
The hiring blitz comes as the automaker expects to increase focus on electric vehicles, including offering at least 20 new electric vehicles globally by 2023, while competitors like Ford accelerate EV investment as well. GM earlier this year said it planned to invest $20 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025, including a tentative Ontario EV plant commitment.

Ken Morris, GM vice president of autonomous and electric vehicles programs, told reporters on a call Monday that the automaker has pulled forward at least two upcoming electric vehicles following the GMC Hummer EV, which is the first vehicle on GM’s next-generation electric vehicle platform with its proprietary Ultium battery cells.

“We’re moving as fast as we can in terms of developing vehicles virtually, more so than we ever have by far,” Morris said. “We are doing things virtually, more effective than we ever have.”

Shares of the automaker reached a new 52-week high of $39.72 ahead of the Monday announcement. The stock was up 5% during midday trading Monday following market optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine and President-elect Joe Biden outlining priorities that would support electric vehicles nationwide.

The race between Tesla, GM, Rivian and others to dominate electric pickup trucks
“We’re looking forward to working with the Biden administration and support policies that will foster greater adoption of EVs across all 50 states and encourage investments in R&D and manufacturing,” Morris said. “At the end of the day, climate change is a global concern and the best way to remove automobile emissions from the environmental equation is all-electric, zero-emissions future.”

At the same time, gas-electric hybrids continue to gain momentum in the U.S., shaping consumer transition paths.

The additional jobs are separate from a previous announcement by GM to hire 1,100 new employees as part of a $2.3 billion joint venture with LG Chem to produce Ultium cells in northeast Ohio.

GM employed about 164,000 people globally in 2019, down from 215,000 in 2015 as the company has restructured and cut operations in recent years.

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Tesla Q2 2020 earnings highlight resilient electric vehicles as production and deliveries outpace legacy automakers, while Gigafactory Austin advances, solar installations slump, and energy storage, Megapack, and free cash flow expand despite COVID-19 disruptions.

Key Points

Tesla posted a fourth consecutive profit, strong cash, EV resilience, solar slump, and rising energy storage.

✅ Fourth straight profit and $418M free cash flow

✅ EV output and deliveries fell just 5% year over year

✅ Solar hit record low; storage rose 61% to 419 MWh

Tesla survived the throes of the coronavirus pandemic relatively unscathed, chalking up its fourth sequential quarterly profit for the first time on Wednesday.

On the energy front, however, things were much more complicated: Tesla reported its worst-ever quarter for solar installations but huge growth in its battery business, amid expectations for cheaper, more powerful batteries expected in coming years. CEO Elon Musk nevertheless predicted the energy business will one day rival its car division in scale.

But today, Tesla's bottom line is all about electric vehicles, and the temporary halt of activity at Tesla's Fremont factory due to local health orders didn’t put much of a dent in vehicle production and delivery. Both figures declined 5 percent compared to the same quarter in 2019. In contrast, Q2 vehicle sales at legacy carmakers Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler declined by one-third or more year-over-year, even as the U.S. EV market share dipped in early 2024 for context.

The costs of factory closures and a $101 million CEO award milestone for Elon Musk didn’t stop Tesla from achieving $418 million in free cash flow, a major improvement over the prior quarter. Cash and cash equivalents grew by $535 million to $8.6 billion during the quarter.

Musk praised his employees for “exceptional execution.” 

“There were so many challenges, too numerous to name, but they got it done,” he said on an investor call Wednesday.

Musk also confirmed that Tesla will build a new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, five minutes from the airport. The 2,000-acre campus will abut the Colorado River and is “basically going to be an ecological paradise,” he said. The new Texas factory will build the Cybertruck, Semi, Model 3 and Model Y for the Eastern half of North America. Fremont, California will produce the S and X, and make Model 3 and Model Y for the West, in a state where EVs exceed 20% of sales according to recent data.

Return of the Tesla solar slump

This was the first entire quarter affected by the coronavirus response, which threw the rooftop solar industry into turmoil by cutting off in-person sales. Other installers scrambled to shift to digital-first sales strategies, but Tesla had already done so months before lockdowns were imposed.

Q2, then, offers a test case on whether Tesla’s pivot to passive online sales made it better able to deal with stay-at-home orders than its peers. The other publicly traded solar installers have not yet reported their Q2 performance, but Tesla delivered its worst-ever quarterly solar figures: Installations totaled just 27 megawatts. That’s a 7 percent decline from Q2 2019, its previous worst quarter ever for solar.

Musk did not address that weak performance in his remarks to investors, opting instead to highlight the company’s late-June decision to offer the cheapest solar pricing in the country. “We’re the company to go to,” he said of rooftop solar. “It’s only going to get better later this year.”

But the sales slump indicates Tesla’s online sales model could not withstand a historically tough season for residential solar.

"Every single residential installer in the country is going to have a bad Q2 because of the initial impacts of COVID on the market," said Austin Perea, senior solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie. "It's hard to disaggregate the impacts of COVID from their own individual strategies."

Tesla's 23 percent decline in quarter-over-quarter solar installations was not as bad as the expected Q2 decline across the rooftop solar industry, Perea added.

On the vehicle side, Tesla’s sales declined less than did those of major automakers. It’s possible that the same pattern will hold for solar; a less severe drop than those seen by Sunrun or Vivint could be claimed as a victory of sorts. But this quarter made clear that Q2 2019 was not the bottom for Tesla’s solar operation, which once led the residential market as SolarCity but significantly diminished since Tesla acquired it in 2016.

Tesla currently stands in third place for residential solar installers. But No. 1 installer Sunrun said this month that it will acquire No. 2 installer Vivint Solar, making Tesla the second-largest installer by default. That major consolidation in the rooftop solar market went unremarked upon in Tesla's investor call.

Solar and energy storage revenue currently equate to just 7 percent of the company's automotive revenue. But Musk reiterated his prediction that this won’t always be the case. “Long term, Tesla Energy will be roughly the same size as Tesla Automotive,” he said on Wednesday's call.

The grid storage business offered more reason for optimism: Capacity deployed grew 61 percent from the first quarter, rising to 419 megawatt-hours. The prepackaged, large-format Megapack product turned its first profit that quarter.

"Difficult to predict" performance in the second half of 2020
Tesla withdrew its financial guidance last quarter in light of the upheaval across the global economy. It refrained from setting new guidance now.

“Although we have successfully ramped vehicle production back to prior levels, it remains difficult to predict whether there will be further operational interruptions or how global consumer sentiment will evolve, given risks to the EV boom noted by analysts, in the second half of 2020,” the earnings report notes.

The company asserted it will still deliver 500,000 vehicles this year regardless of externalities, a goal that aligns with broader EV sales momentum in 2024 trends. It already has sufficient production capacity installed to reach that, Tesla said. But with 179,387 cars delivered so far, Tesla faces an uphill climb to ship more cars in the second half.

Wall Street maintained its buoyant confidence in Tesla's share price, despite rising competition in China noted by rivals. It closed at $1,592 before the earnings announcement, rising to $1,661 in after-hours trading.

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US Wind and Solar Outlook 2026 projects cheap renewables displacing coal and gas, with utility-scale additions, rooftop solar growth, improved grid reliability, and EV V2G integration accelerating decarbonization across the electricity market.

Key Points

An analysis forecasting wind and solar growth, displacing coal and gas as utility-scale and rooftop solar expand.

✅ Utility-scale solar installs avg 21 GW/yr through 2026.

✅ 37.7 GW wind in pipeline; 127.8 GW already online.

✅ Small-scale solar could near 100 TWh in 2026.

A recent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) predicts that cheap renewables in the form of wind and solar will push coal and gas out of the energy market space. Already at 9% of US generation, the report predicts that wind and solar will supply almost 30% of US electricity demand by 2026, consistent with renewables nearing one-fourth of U.S. generation projections for the near term.

“The Solar Energy Industries Association now expects utility-scale installations to average more than 21,000MW a year through 2026, following a year when U.S. solar generation rose 25% and with a peak of 25,000MW in 2023,” IEEFA writes. “Continued growth is also expected in U.S. wind generation, mirroring global trends where China's solar PV expansion outpaced all other fuels in 2016, with 37.7GW of new capacity already under construction or in advanced development, which would be added to 127.8GW in existing installed capacity.”

Meanwhile, with wind and solar growth booming, fossil fuels are declining, as renewables surpassed coal in 2022 nationwide. “Coal and natural gas are now locked into an essentially zero-sum game where increases in one fuel’s generation comes at the expense of the other. Together, they are not gaining market share, rather they are trading it back and forth, and the rapid growth in renewable generation will cut even deeper into the market share of both.”

And what of rooftop solar? Some states in Australia now have periods where the entire state grid is powered just by solar on the roofs of private citizens. As this revolution progresses in the USA, especially if a tenfold national solar push moves forward, what impact will it make on fossil fuel generators — which are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, expensive to fuel, and rely on an expensive distribution network.

“EIA estimates that this ‘small-scale solar’ produced 41.7 million MWh of power in 2020, when solar accounted for about 3% of U.S. electricity, a 19 percent increase from 2019. This growth will likely continue in the years ahead as costs continue to fall and concerns about grid reliability rise. Assuming a conservative 15 percent annual increase in small-scale solar going forward would push the sector’s generation to almost 100 million MWh in 2026.”

The Joker in the story might be the impact from electric vehicle adoption. Sales are set to surge and there’s more and more interest in V2G technology, even as wind and solar could provide 50% by 2050 in broader forecasts.

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Clean Energy Transition spans hydrogen strategies, offshore wind and undersea cables, decarbonization pledges, and net-zero targets, including green vs blue hydrogen, carbon capture, sustainable aviation fuel, forest conservation, and wetland protection in Canadian policy.

Key Points

A shift to low-carbon systems via hydrogen, renewables, net-zero policies, carbon capture, and conservation.

✅ Hydrogen pathways: green vs blue with carbon capture

✅ Grid expansion: offshore wind and undersea cables in Japan

✅ Policy and corporate moves: net-zero, SAF, forests, wetlands

The Canadian federal government is set to sign a new agreement with Germany to strategize on a “clean-energy transition,” with clean hydrogen in Canada expected to be a key player the Globe and Mail reports.

“Germany is probably the world’s most interesting market for hydrogen right now, and Canada is potentially a very big power in its production,” Sabine Sparwasser, Germany’s ambassador to Canada, said in an interview.

However, some friction is expected as Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan has been endorsing “blue” hydrogen, while Germany has been more interested in “green” hydrogen. The former hydrogen is produced from natural gas or other fossil fuels, while simultaneously “using carbon-capture technology to minimize emissions from the process.” In contrast, “green” hydrogen, is manufactured from non-fossil fuel sources, and cleaning up Canada's electricity is critical to meeting climate pledges.

“How the focus on blue hydrogen will be aligned with Canada’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 is not spelled out in detail,” says an executive summary of the report by the Berlin-based think tank and consultancy Adelphi. “As a result, the strategy seems to be more of a vision for the future of those provinces with large fossil fuel resources.”

According to an IEA report Canada will need more electricity to hit net-zero, underscoring the strategy questions.

Internationally

Japan is in talks to develop undersea cables that would bring offshore wind energy to Tokyo and the Kansai region, as the country hopes to more than quadrable its wind capacity from 10 gigawatts in 2030 to 45 gigawatts in 2040. The construction of the cables would cost about US$9.2 billion.

In Western Canada, bridging the electricity gap between Alberta and B.C. makes similar climate sense, proponents argue.

Approximately 80 per cent of that offshore power is expected to be built in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu regions. The project is part of the country’s pledge to achieve decarbonization by 2050, according to BNN Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Russia is falling behind in the world’s transition to clean energy.

“What’s the alternative? Russia can’t be an exporter of clean energy, that path isn’t open for us,” says Konstantin Simonov, director of the National Energy Security Fund, a Moscow consultancy whose clients include major oil and gas companies. “We can’t just swap fossil fuel production for clean energy production, because we don’t have any technology of our own.” Ultimately, natural gas will always be cheaper than renewable energy in Russia, Simonov added. This story also from BNN Bloomberg.

Finally, New Zealand’s Tilt Renewables Ltd., an electricity company, has announced it would be acquired by Powering Australian Renewables (PowAR) for NZ$2.94 billion (US$2.10 billion). PowAR is Australia’s largest owner of wind and solar energy, and the deal will give the energy giant access to Tilt’s 20 wind farms. Reuters has the story.

In Canada  

Air Canada has unveiled plans to fight climate change. Specifically, the airlines giant has committed to reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) by 20 per cent from flights by 2030, investing $50 million in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and ensuring net-zero emissions by 2050.

In other news, B.C. is facing mounting pressure to abstain from logging “old growth forests” while the government transitions to more sustainable forestry policies. A report titled A New Future for Old Forests called on the provincial government to act within six months to protect such forests in April 2020.

The province's Site C mega dam is billions over budget but will go ahead, the premier said, highlighting the energy sector's complexity.

Last September, the province announced, “it would temporarily defer old growth harvesting in close to 353,000 hectares in nine different areas.” The B.C. government will hold consultations with First Nations and other forestry stakeholders “to determine the next areas where harvesting may be deferred,” according to Forests Minister Katrine Conroy. The Canadian Press has more.

Separately, LNG powered with electricity could be a boon for B.C.'s independent power producers, analysts say.

Finally, Pickering Developments Inc. has come forward saying it will not “alter or remove the wetland” that was meant to house an Amazon facility, according to CBC News.

The announcement comes after CBC News’s previously reported that the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) was pressured to issue a construction permit to Pickering Developments Inc. by Doug Ford’s provincial government. However, on March 12, an official with Amazon Canada told CBC News that the company no longer wished to build a warehouse on the site.

“In light of a recent announcement that a new fulfilment centre will no longer be located on this property, this voluntary undertaking ensures that no work, legally authorized by that permit, will occur,” Pickering Development Inc. said in a statement provided to CBC Toronto.

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