Corporations are Making Deals to Purchase Cleaner Energy – Here’s How

According to CNBC, many tech firms in the U.S. are joining forces to boost renewable energy purchases in corporate America.

Involved companies recently formed the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), which is geared towards helping “companies take advantage of new ways to purchase clean energy.” REBA’s main goal is to support the construction of new renewable energy power sources by striking green energy-related deals with large companies like General Motors, Walmart, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, CNBC says.

Also under REBA, these companies want to empower tens of thousands of companies to purchase renewable energy, “increasing the market from roughly 5,000 companies today.”

REBA will launch with around 200 corporate buyer sand 125 renewable energy developers and providers, CNBC says, growing out of support from nonprofits like the World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute, and Business for Social Responsibility.

What decision makers might not know:

CNBC says that other corporate companies have already been working on these types of green energy deals before REBA. For example, “Through last year, companies signed enough corporate renewable deals to support nearly 16 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity in the U.S.,” CNBC says.

The problem with these deals, however, is that outside of that small handful of companies, few corporations developed the skills and expertise to participate. “Most of these large buyers have never really done anything different than what you or I do, which is paying an energy bill,” Miranda Ballentine, REBA’s founding CEO, told CNBC.

Fixing the problem:

Aside from encouraging new corporations to get in on these cleaner deals, REBA aims to fine tune current renewable energy contracts, remove barriers, and tackle policy hurdles, ultimately “helping companies establish internal systems to ease the path to buying clean energy.”

Plus, REBA will raise awareness of what businesses can do to cut back on emissions, and which companies are most likely to create pollution. For example, “Corporate America has a major role to play, because commercial and industrial power users are the leading cause of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.,” Ballentine told CNBC.

With these corporations involved, and through the help of others, REBA will be able to accelerate enough clean energy deals that grow the market to 60 gigwatts by 2025 – roughly equal to all the solar photovoltaic power capacity that was available in the U.S. in 2018.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!