Renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) made by corporates in Europe totalled 8GW in 2019, up from 5.5GW in 2018. The vast majority (85%) of the growth was accounted for by wind deals, mainly offshore.
That is a headline conclusion of the latest research and advice paper from the RE-Source Platform, a consortium consisting of The Climate Group’s RE100 initiative and its member corporates; WindEurope, SolarPower Europe; CDP and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). According to the report, wind accounted for 85% of the off-site PPA deals made in 2019 by value. Investment in such deals was particularly pronounced in Sweden, Norway and here in the UK. The UK Government notably introduced its offshore wind sector deal last year, jointly committing with key industry players boost annual exports fivefold by 2030, to reach £2.6bn.
According to the RE-Source Platform’s findings, policymakers and businesses in most European nations are, like the UK, prioritising offshore renewable generation technologies, as they can typically be made larger than onshore arrays. Solar, however, still had a major role to play, the report concludes, accounting for almost 30% of clean PPA deals made last year in Europe by volume. In comparison, solar accounted for less than 6% of all clean PPA deals made in Europe by volume in 2018. The three largest individual European solar deals made in 2019 were of 199MW by Amazon in Spain; 160MW by Google in Demnark and 143MW in France by rail operator SNCF. Amazon has notably pledged to source 100% renewable electricity by 2030, with an interim aim of 80% by 2024, while Google has been sourcing 100% renewable electricity for operations since 2017 and is now investing at scale to bring manufacturers and suppliers along for the transition.
While the facts and figures for Europe are promising, and even larger year-on-year boom in clean PPAs was recorded in the US in 2019. Renewable PPAs made in the US last year totalled 16GW, up from 10GW in 2018, the report states. 16GW is equivalent to four-fifths of the global total.
Source: edie.net
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