Assessing application potential of clean energy supply for greenhouse gas emission mitigation: a case study on General Motors global manufacturing

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global manufacturing companies are significant due to the high percentage of fossil fuels consumed in current energy structure. Clean energy technologies are widely recognized for their cleanliness in power generations and accordingly are promising as alternative energy supply for GHG mitigation from global manufacturing. However, deploying clean energy technologies at a global scale requires multi-attribute decision-making and currently there is a lack of information for assessing the application potential of various clean energy systems. This paper presents a mathematical approach based on cost benefit analysis to evaluate the application potential of such clean energy systems as solar photovoltaic, wind, hybrid solar-wind, and hydrogen-based fuel cells to partially supply the electricity needs of global manufacturing to reduce the facility GHG emissions. A case study is conducted on six selected production sites from GM's global production locations, with the future trend of the results analyzed till 2035. The analysis results reveal that the optimal selection and deployment of a clean power system are dependent on such factors as location, time, technology and scale. The highest cost benefit result is obtained on wind power system deployed in Bochum, with 15.5 tons of CO2,eq mitigation potential per $1000 cost input. The number will be increased to 15.73 and 19.96 tons of CO2,eq per $1000 cost input in 2020 and 2035, respectively. The models and results presented in this study could be useful in decision support of optimal selection and deployment of clean energy system by global manufacturers in future.