Honda to Offset 60% of N. American Factory Emissions

Honda Motor Co. is buying enough electricity from renewable sources to offset 60% of the power its North American factories use from fossil fuel-burning generating plants.

The so-called “virtual power” purchase agreements (VPPAs) buy electricity from wind farms and other renewable sources and contribute it to the electric grid. Honda says its VPPAs will offset more than 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, or more than 60% of the electricity it consumes in North America.

VPPAs allow companies to counter CO₂ emissions from power generated at locations where it isn’t possible to purchase renewables from the local electric utility. The purchased clean energy then is sold to a nearby grid.

Honda’s combined deals for wind and solar power generation eventually will total 1 million MWh of electricity per year. Honda claims this is the largest renewable energy procurement commitment by any carmaker.

Next autumn, Honda will purchase 530,000 MWh per year from E.ON’s Boiling Springs Wind Farm in Oklahoma. This will be followed a year later by the purchase of 482,000 MWh annually from an unspecified solar power facility in Texas.

Honda will continue to purchase electricity from the local utility for its vehicle manufacturing plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio. But it will receive renewable energy certificates through the VPPAs that result in net zero CO₂ equivalent emissions from electricity use at those facilities.

Honda says 21% of the electricity it uses in North America currently is supplied from extremely low- and zero-CO₂ sources. The VPPAs will raise the total use of renewable electricity to more than 80%.