March 31, 2021
Sustainability Roundtable Inc (SR Inc) Member-clients continue to lead on Buyer Aggregated Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs).
SR Inc Member-clients MilliporeSigma, Akamai, Synopsys and Uber led on the largest peer Buyer Aggregated VPPA transaction yet – 111 MWs from Enel Green Power of North America’s Azure Wind and Battery Storage project in Texas. The 111 MWs of wind is expected to generate enough to power the equivalent of 40,000 average American homes over the next 12 years. The four companies were supported by SR Inc’s Net Zero Consortium for Buyers (NZCB), helping the NZCB become the leading platform for Buyer Aggregated VPPAs which is underway with multiple, larger projects now. Buyer Aggregated VPPAs are democratizing the financial and environmental benefits of causing utility scale renewable energy.
“This aggregation deal demonstrates an extraordinary shift in the renewable energy purchasing market to give businesses with modest energy demand, but ambitious renewable energy goals, the opportunity to procure renewable energy in a cost-effective way,” said Georgios Papadimitriou, Head of Enel Green Power in the U.S. and Canada. “As more companies of all sizes look to power their operations with clean energy, Enel is uniquely positioned to enable that transition, by creating customized solutions to meet the energy needs of all buyers.”
“To reach our goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040, accessing renewable energy programs like the Azure Sky Wind Project will be critical to MilliporeSigma and so many companies as they put into action environmentally conscious strategies and policies,” said Chris Ross, Interim CEO, MilliporeSigma.
“Akamai has led the way in innovative renewable energy projects since 2018, when we were a part of the United States’ first corporate aggregated virtual power purchase agreement (“VPPA”) – a game-changing approach for smaller renewable energy buyers. Today we are proud to continue that legacy by participating in the largest aggregation to date,” said Mike Mattera, Director, Corporate Sustainability, Akamai Technologies, Inc.
“This landmark Virtual Power Purchase Agreement is instrumental to Synopsys’ ability to deliver on its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 25% by 2024,” said Barbara Donaldson, Senior Vice President of Workplace Resources at Synopsys. “The 15 megawatts of wind generation capacity will help Synopsys mitigate approximately 70% of our projected North American emissions, leading to new renewable energy on the grid and displacing fossil fuels.”
“As the largest mobility platform in the world, we know that our impact goes beyond our technology. We want to do our part to build back better and support a green recovery to our cities and communities,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
The Buyer Aggregated VPPA is an example of renewable energy for every high credit enterprise – even those in 100% leased space with outsourced data centers and with electricity demand spread across regulated and/or deregulated markets in North America and Europe.
Find more details here.
