Rocky Mountain Institute Unveils Aids to Procure Renewables

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Center (BRC) unveiled six new products to aid corporate renewable energy purchasing. The BRC’s focus is to streamline and accelerate corporate renewable energy procurement. Accessible to BRC members, the primers and guides are available through a curated wiki-style site and include:

Technical resources:

1. Deal Structure Primer: The types of deal structures available in both regulated and deregulated wholesale and retail power markets, including a guide to negotiating virtual PPAs.
2. Accounting Primer: PPA contracts explained—contracting clauses, terms and definitions.
3. Economic Analysis Primer: How to comprehensively value deals to lock in power prices below electricity market prices and protect against natural-gas price volatility.

Organizational resources:

1. Internal Support Guide: How to build internal company support and recruit a C-level sponsor by demonstrating how renewable energy deals help hit targets.
2. Deal Process Guide: How to set up a deal team, align its objectives and approach, build support and obtain a clear mandate for the power-purchase deal.
3. Deal Dream-Team Guide: Renewable energy deals require the right team to succeed. How to assemble external consultants, auditors, legal firms and internal champions.

The primers and guides include the industry experience of the BRC team and the BRC’s members and sponsors, as well as the collective insights of interviewed corporate pioneers that have already completed renewable energy deals totaling a combined capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts.