Corporations around the world bought a record-breaking amount of renewable energy through PPAs in 2018. And the deals are likely to continue: A new BloombergNEF market outlook projects that RE100 companies need to purchase an additional 190 terawatt hours of renewables by 2030 in order to meet their targets.
BloombergNEF’s 1H 2019 Corporate Energy Market Outlook published today found that 121 corporations in 21 different countries signed some 13.4 GW of renewable energy contracts last year. More than 60% of the global activity in 2018 occurred in the US, according to the BNEF analysis.
One of the major trends highlighted in the market outlook is smaller corporate energy buyers aggregating their purchases, particularly in the United States. Last year around 34 new companies signed their first renewable energy PPAs, and aggregated their electricity demand to reap the economies of scale from larger solar and wind projects, BNEF noted.
“The healthiest signal of continued growth in the global corporate procurement space is the growing alliance of companies establishing clean energy and sustainability commitments,” the analysts said. They cited the RE100 campaign, which had nearly 160 signatories by the end of 2018 and currently has 161.
BNEF noted that RE100 companies consumed an estimated 189 terawatt hours of electricity in 2017, equivalent to Egypt’s electricity consumption.
“These companies will need to purchase an additional 190 TWh of clean electricity in 2030 to meet their RE100 targets,” BloombergNEF projected. “Should this shortfall be met with offsite solar and wind PPAs, it would catalyze an estimated 102 GW of new solar and wind build globally, greater than the size of the UK’s power generation fleet in 2017.”
The market outlook anticipates new opportunities arising from all these commitments.
“For companies that think seriously about sustainable growth, establishing clean energy and decarbonization targets lines up naturally with overall corporate strategies,” said Jonas Rooze, head of corporate sustainability for BNEF. “At the same time, these initiatives have created an entire new universe of opportunity for utilities, clean energy developers, and investors.”
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