General Motors Ventures LLC said it’s investing $7.5 million in equity capital in Sunlogics PLC as GM increases its overall interests in solar. The investment comes as GM launches an effort to double the amount of solar power it uses from 30 megawatts to 60 megawatts by 2015.

That includes offering Sunlogic’s Green Zone solar canopies, which include electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and for plug-in hybrids like the Volt, at its dealerships across the U.S.

It’s GM’s first investment in a solar company, according to Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of its Renewable Energy division. The investment will help Sunlogics as it starts producing Green Zones and modules for large-scale projects with GM and other companies.

"Global solar energy use is predicted to more than double by 2016, so we believe that investing in renewable energy is a smart and strategic business decision," Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures, said in a press release. "And the Chevrolet solar charging canopy project complements our electrification strategy that started with the Chevrolet Volt by helping our cars live up to their fullest green potential."

The company can use that equity for capital investment here and to get the facility in Ontario, Canada, up and running. The company is producing in Ontario to take advantage of incentives in the Canadian province.

“They can get the feed-in tariff there and low-cost financing through the Ex-Im Bank,” Threlkeld said.

Sunlogics is moving amorphous-silicon photovoltaic production lines from a plant in New Jersey to new locations in Rochester, Mich., and Ontario. When completed, there will be 20 megawatts and 200 jobs at the Michigan facility and 10 megawatts and 110 jobs in the Ontario facility, according to Threlkeld.

The company bought a photovoltaic manufacturer that went bankrupt, Threlkeld said. That company also had a manufacturing facility in Germany that Sunlogics is also re-commissioning.

GM plans to install more solar power at its manufacturing facilities across the world, using Sunlogics modules.

“Most of these will be under a power-purchase agreement. We’ve signed a master power-purchase agreement template with them,” Threlkeld said. The template will allow GM to simplify the power-purchase agreements with Sunlogics for manufacturing plants to a certain extent.

“We’ll be using their [i.e. Sunlogics’] capabilities across the globe,” Threlkeld said. “Really Asia and the U.S. are global hotspots. There’s a lot of interest for us to move into China.”

Image courtesy of GM.