Despite COVID-19, global corporate renewable electricity sourcing demand grows
Corporate renewable electricity sourcing in Europe has shown continuous growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the resilience and potential of Europe’s renewable energy sector, RE-Source 2020 said on December 7.
In November, the cumulative contracted volume of corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Europe reached the 11 GW mark, up from just 2.2 GW by the end of 2016 and with a record 3 GW contracted in 2020 alone, Re-Source 2020 said in a press release, adding that this shows that more and more companies are stepping up to the challenge of reducing carbon emissions with renewable electricity, in line with the EU’s plans for a green economic recovery.
Re-Source 2020 is running from December 7 to December 11, bringing together thousands of key corporate buyers and clean energy suppliers for a week of virtual knowledge and experience sharing, inspiring keynotes, and B2B networking.
With its Green Deal, the EU is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050. Today businesses account for a significant amount of Europe’s carbon emissions. Corporate renewable PPAs are fast becoming a key driver in transitioning businesses to renewable electricity. As such, these agreements play an instrumental role in meeting Europe’s energy and climate targets.
COVID-19 and its impact on Europe’s economies has not reduced demand for corporate renewable electricity sourcing, Re-Source 2020 said.
This year has seen more European companies considering corporate renewable PPAs as a competitive form of electricity sourcing than ever before, with 80 new PPAs signed in 2020 in Europe compared to less than 60 in 2018.
But regulatory bottlenecks remain. With the assistance of a wide range of experts and business leaders, RE-Source said, calling for policymakers to facilitate PPAs in Europe by constructing a European regulatory framework fit for the future for PPAs at EU level and removing barriers at EU and national level to ensure the growth of corporate renewable energy PPAs in Europe.
The Re-Source Platform also called for improving the safeguards for the implementation of enabling frameworks for corporate renewable energy PPAs in the National Energy and Climate Plans and nsuring a robust system for certification and tracking of renewable-based electricity to increase investment, transparency levels and the information contained in guarantees of origin.
WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said energy-intensive industries used not to like renewables. “They saw us as expensive and worried we’d mess up the energy system with our ‘intermittency’. Now they’re knocking on our doors to help them decarbonise. They see renewables are cheap and increasingly reliable. And they see that corporate PPAs help them lock in their energy costs. So we’re seeing more and more PPAs, even this year,” Dickson said.
For her part, SolarPower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger noted that this difficult year has shown the strength and resilience of renewables, and despite market contractions in many sectors, corporate PPAs have continued their rapid growth in Europe. “Future-looking businesses can help usher in a new era of energy sourcing and contribute to the EU’s plan to reach climate neutrality by 2050. RE-Source 2020 gathers leading figures of the energy transition and corporates who are paving the way for 100% renewables-based electricity,” she said.
On-site renewable electricity and storage
Meanwhile, the RE-Source Platform launched a new report revealing the significant untapped potential and value for corporates in deploying renewable electricity and storage installations on commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings or within their premises.
Europe has the opportunity to move towards more sustainable economic models that achieve climate neutrality and support the competitiveness of European businesses. With the right enabling framework, on-site renewable electricity generation and storage can play a significant role in the energy transition, helping companies to increase their renewable electricity procurement in Europe, and to meet their ambitious emissions reduction targets, Re-Source said.
The new report describes innovative on-site business models that companies can benefit from, and provides recommendations to EU and national policymakers to unlock the potential of on-site renewables and storage.
