Solar Energy Revolution Brewing In Arkansas With Assist From GM

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The Intertubes lit up last week when General Motors dropped word that it will power three of its assembly plants with clean electricity from a new solar farm in Arkansas, but that’s just the tip of a solar energy boom washing over the state. Arkansas has been shaking the dust off its renewable energy profile and eco-friendly thin film solar technology is also in play.

Arkansas Has Not Caught Solar Energy Fever, Yet

As of Q1 2024, Arkansas ranked #27 on the state-by-state rankings of installed solar capacity tracked by the Solar Energy Industries Association. That’s much better than many other US states, though not nearly as much as larger-population states including Texas and California.

One area that has seen some healthy activity is rooftop solar and other small scale projects. In May of 2021 the news organization Arkansas Money & Politics Experts ran the numbers and credited Act 464, a state law that passed in 2019. The new law expanded net metering and provided access to third-party financing. “Since then, there has been an ever-increasing number of school districts, cities, counties and municipal utilities buying into solar energy,” AMP noted.

Still, as of Q1 2024 Arkansas had only 1,122 megawatts of installed solar power capacity to its credit. According to the figures kept by SEIA, a single utility-scale solar project in Chicot County accounted for an outsized share of those megawatts. Completed in 2020, the Chicot Solar project was still the largest solar power energy in Arkansas as of Q1 2024, with a capacity of 140 megawatts.

More Solar Energy For Arkansas

The Arkansas solar needle is finally beginning to move, and GM can take part of the credit. The automaker has been on a renewable energy tear under the stewardship of CEO Mary Barra, with a focus on power purchase agreements. PPAs commit an electricity user to a long term contract for the purchase of clean kilowatts from a renewable energy project. That arrangement provides developers with financial security. It also frees the purchaser from having to pay up front for constructing their own dedicated renewable energy project.

To be clear, the purchaser still receives the local grid mix of electricity, which can include non-renewables. The main point is to support a financial pipeline that launches more renewable energy projects into the grid more quickly.

Last week GM announced that it has entered into a PPA for electricity from the largest ever solar energy project in Arkansas so far, the Newport Solar project. Located in the town of Newport, the 180-megawatt project comes under the umbrella of the firm NorthStar Clean Energy, a branch of CMS Energy.

The Newport Solar deal is also the biggest PPA deal the automaker has made yet. In an interesting twist, the company is assigning electricity from the solar energy project to three assembly plants that are not located in Arkansas. The lucky facilities are Michigan’s  Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Lansing Grand River Assembly, and Missouri’s Wentzville Assembly. All three plants are connected to the same grid as the Newport Solar project.

The deal between GM and NorthStar is not a one-off for GM. The company has been stimulating the clean energy transition since the Obama administration, through collaborative efforts like the RE100 corporate clean energy initiative and the Clean Energy Buyers Association (formerly the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance).

With the Newport solar energy project in hand, GM maintains its status as the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the US. Its roster covers 17 different projects across 11 states.

Among other activities of note in the solar energy journey of Arkansas since Q1 2024, in June the firm EDP Renewables flipped the switch on a new 175-megawatt array in Mississippi County, and a massive 313-megawatt array is forthcoming in the same area from Lightsource bp and Entergy Arkansas. Construction of a 180-megawatt array is also under way in Crittenden County, under the banner of NextEra Energy Resources.

Thin Film Solar Finds Its Mojo

Another interesting aspect of the Newport project is the use of thin film solar technology, with more than 500,000 panels provided by the leading US manufacturer First Solar.

That’s of interest because thin film solar technology has been relatively slow on the uptake compared to silicon solar panels, which are preferred in terms of solar energy conversion efficiency. However, conversion efficiency is not the only factor of interest to solar developers (see more thin film solar background here).

First Solar, for example, leads its pitch with the superior environmental footprint of thin film technology compared to silicon. The company explains that its thin film modules feature a cadmium telluride (CadTel) semiconductor, deploying byproduct materials from copper and zinc mining operations.

“First Solar’s thin film PV technology produces energy-efficient modules with a superior degradation rate, temperature coefficient, spectral and shading response, and the smallest environmental footprint in the industry,” the company states, adding that its modules need only a fraction of the semiconductor material used in silicon solar cells.

“The company’s vertically integrated manufacturing technology results in fewer process steps and faster production times with superior traceability and transparency,” First Solar emphasizes.

Solar Energy And Arkansas: Smaller Works Also

SEIA projections or not, a rising wave of opposition to rural solar development could put a crimp on utility-scale solar energy projects in the state. However, Arkansas ratepayers will keep getting their hands on clean power, one way or another.

In May, Arkansas Advocate reporter Mary Hennigan took note of a $94 million pot of federal funds aimed at steering solar energy to low-income households in Arkansas. Part of the funds will go to help install rooftop solar panels on single-family homes. A strategy for providing solar energy to multi-family buildings is also part of the plan.

“Arkansas was one of many states chosen to receive the federal funds from the Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion Solar for All program, announced last month. The funds became available through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act,” Hennigan recounted. The program is being implemented by two non-profit organizations, the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation of Little Rock and Hope Enterprise Corporation. Hope also serves ratepayers in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

That’s just for starters. Hennigan describes two other federally funded, multi-state solar energy initiatives for low-income households in Arkansas. Local governments are also spurring the solar energy movement, including a plan in the works to provide for 70% of the electricity used by buildings under the city of Little Rock umbrella.

A new Arkansas law that slashes peak net metering compensation in half could put a damper on that kind of activity when it goes into effect for new solar energy projects connected to the grid after September 31.

On the bright side, the falling cost of energy storage could help keep the wheels in motion, at least for large-scale ratepayers that also value energy storage as a hedge against grid outages and curtailments. Keep an eye on a forthcoming 20-megawatt solar-plus-storage microgrid project for the firm Producers Rice Mill under the banner of the Arkansas firm Scenic Hill Solar.

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Photo: Arkansas is becoming a solar energy hotspot, with General Motors lending a hand through a new 180-megawatt power purchase agreement to supply clean electricity to three of its assembly plants (courtesy of General Motors).