As per the Consumer Report Survey, most American people won’t just prefer to choose their own utility companies but rather will also have more of the energy that powers their house coming from clean energy. Almost 81% of respondents agreed that diminishing pollution from power plants.
However, only 50 percent of American citizens have legal rights to purchase renewable energy directly from their power suppliers. But everyone does have the option to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs). As for Corporates and many companies, the heavy price of climate change has been forcing them to think about reducing carbon footprints and reducing fossil fuel consumption. Therefore, this is precisely what lead these companies to rise as the biggest buyers of renewable energy.
Even Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report shows that global organizations have been making a record number of clean energy purchase agreements, or else PPAs to say. 19.5 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy has been purchased by global organizations in 2019. This marks an impressive 40% Year-on-Year (Y/Y) increase. This statics shows companies have quickly ramped up in clean energy purchases from 4.3GW in 2016 over the past three years.
Image From BNEF
If you are wondering which corporate world has been buying the most renewable energy then don’t get surprised when we tell you. It’s of course, Big Tech companies. However, Big Oil companies are entering the party to have some piece of that delicious cake. These Big Oil companies are always criticized as the main contributor to climate change. This exactly might be the reason why they are shifting towards renewable energy and chasing a sustainable future.
Source | BNEF
Big Oil Companies Vs Big Tech Companies
Big Tech Giant Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, as well as Microsoft, have been crowned as main clean energy buyers over the past half-decade. Furthermore, these companies are looking towards not slowing down and continue being renewable energy users.
In 2019, Google struck a contract to purchase whooping 2.7GW of clean energy globally. This is the biggest clean energy contract to date. It means, the company will buy over 1.9GW of clean energy in six different countries. Furthermore, the giant company applies a unique reverse auction process when signing these renewable energy contracts. Developers have to part in this process by participating in a live and public bidding procedure.
Similarly, Facebook claims the second position with a 1.1GW clean energy commitment. Meanwhile, Amazon comes third with 0.9GW and Microsoft takes fourth place with 0.8GW. There’s not much difference when it comes to Amazon and Microsoft.
Google has unveiled its signing of an almost 2 Billion USD investment in Wind and Solar Energy. Their massive as well as power-hungry data centers might be the reason behind these scenarios. Let’s not forget to mention, Amazon also revealed its plans to invest in four different renewable energy projects. This effort is simply to achieve their target of producing 80 Percent renewable energy by 2024 as well as 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
When we heard this, it gave us a shock for quite some time. But you can never change a fact. Big Oil companies have arrived on the scene with the motive to rival these Big Tech Companies in terms of renewable energy.
ExxonMobil is the first Big Oil company to sign several large PPAs in 2018. Following these footsteps comes Occidental Petroleum, Chevron as well as Energy Transfer Partners. All these BIg Oil Companies signed renewable energy contracts in 2019. The first comer ExxonMobil struck a deal with Danish utility Orsted that included 500 megawatts (MW). This 500 MW of clean energy comes from Wind and Solar Power located at Orsted’s park in Texas, the USA for the operation of its Permian Basin oil fields.
Similarly, Occidental unveiled its start-up of a 16 MW solar park in Texas. Let’s add the signing of an off-take signing for an additional 109 MW of solar energy. In the same year, 2018, Chevron announced its signing of a 12 year PPA. It was with a wind farm in West Texas from which they bought 65 MW of wind energy. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer Partners signed a 15 year PPA deal with Canadian Solar’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy LLC. This contract was agreed upon for the construction of a 28 MWac Maplewood 2 Solar Project. This was marked as Energy Transfer’s first-ever dedicated solar contract.
The Rise in Clean Energy Demand
At the time being, there are almost 270 global companies that are getting their hands into renewable energy. The best part is, all these companies are chasing 100 percent renewable energy in near future. Statics show it 22 percent increase from last year’s account of 221 members. RE100 club as they have a name it.
BNEF stated the sustainability commitment and powerful ESG megatrend are the main reason behind thriving clean energy. They also reported that last year RE100 companies will have to purchase an additional 210 Terawatt (TWh) of clean energy in 2030 to achieve their set targets. This will probably turn an estimated 105 GW of new clean energy globally. That’s nearly 100 Billion USD in clean energy infrastructure.
But along with the impressively expanding RE100 membership, we may see clean energy as well as infrastructure figures being bound up to be two or three times higher than what BNEF has estimated. Anyhow this will directly contribute towards promoting renewable energy and a sustainable environment. Slowly and steadily we are seeing people and companies being aware of climate change and shifting towards the usage of clean energy. In near future, we may see a world with 100 percent renewable energy and we hope to see one.
Source | OilPrice