Renewable Energy PPA Outlook | Renewables Watch Blog

In our recent Renewables Watch Whitepaper, ESAI examines the historical trends and prospects for continued growth in the procurement of renewable energy by corporate entities. In recent years, corporate greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy goals have led to contracts between corporate entities and owners of renewable generation facilities totaling more than 64 GW across the United States. While this capacity is significant, there remains additional headroom for corporate contracts as the generation associated with the capacity currently under contract accounts for only 7% of the total U.S. commercial and industrial load.

We also examined corporate carbon reduction and renewable energy goals. For corporations with these goals, there are wide variations in the nature of these commitments. For this analysis, ESAI focused on large technology companies and found that most, including Google, Facebook, and Apple, have adopted net-zero emissions by 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy goals. For renewable energy goals, most corporations “match” their total electricity consumption with renewable energy production.

Potential for Continued Growth in Corporate Contracts in the US

To estimate the potential for growth in U.S. corporate PPA activity, ESAI subtracted the total approximate operational solar and wind generation currently under corporate contract from the total 2021 commercial and industrial demand. Our whitepaper shows the percentage of commercial and industrial load currently under a corporate renewable PPA is 7.0 percent (3.8 percent from solar and 3.2 percent from wind). ESAI anticipates this percentage to increase going forward.