One of the crucial requirements in achieving global clean energy regulations and targets is for corporations and utilities to transition to renewable energy along with the residential sector. In 2018, corporations bought about 13GW of green energy (solar and wind). This is almost double the level in 2017. They are not anymore just another method to meet their corporate social responsibilities (CSR). These transitions are brining real tangible energy savings to these companies. These corporate clean energy PPAs also adds to the renewable energy investments
United States, Australia and India are leading in this area. As reported by BNEF, globally, big businesses have purchased about 13 GW of clean energy in 2018 – 121 corporations in 21 countries. Australia and India has purchased nearly 1.3GW of PPAs in the Asia-Oceanic region. In US, nearly 31 new companies signed PPAs last year. The major buyers included Facebook and AT&T.
ExxonMobil is the first fossil-fuel company to adopt PPA for clean energy – about 575 MW of solar and wind power in Texas. It should be noted that these PPAs only include power directly purchased from energy generators and not those that reaches the clients through grid.
Furthermore, to facilitate more PPAs in Australia, ARENA has plans to sell 5GW of renewable energy to corporations by 2030. Even all these efforts make solar, wind and hydro constitute only 20% of the Australia’s total energy landscape.
