US corporate wind and solar energy deals thus far in 2018 have set a single calendar-year record at 6.43GW, doubling the previous high of 3.22GW in 2015, fueled by high-volume Facebook, AT&T, Walmart, ExxonMobil and Microsoft transactions, according to the Business Renewables Center (BRC).

This year’s data was through last Friday. Arrangements involving publicly announced contracted capacity from corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs), green power purchases, green tariffs, and outright project ownership totaled 2.78GW in 2017, BRC’s Deal Tracker shows.

This year, Facebook leads in highest capacity with its several deals totaling 1.85GW, while also breaking all buyer cumulative annual procurement records since deals have been tracked in 2013 by BRC, a membership programme at Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based non-profit.

Since then, cumulative US corporate renewable energy purchasing has surpassed 15GW.

AT&T ranks second this year completing deals totaling 820MW - its first year of market participation.

ExxonMobil may be the most surprising new entrant in 2018 with wind and solar procurement deals – 250MW each - in Texas, the largest such purchase by an oil company globally. The supermajor has been conspicuously slow to embrace both technologies unlike publicly-traded rivals BP, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell.

The US is the world’s fastest-growing commercial and industrial (C&I) market for wind power and increasingly for solar. An increasing number of large and medium-size companies are acquiring or contracting for renewable energy capacity for the low, long-term fixed costs to help lower energy bills and facilitate long-term planning.

Some are also buying renewables to meet internal climate and/or sustainability goals, and in response to pressure from customers, elected officials and shareholders.

While most power off-take deals are done by technology companies, a growing number involve manufacturers such as Dow Chemical, General Motors, Kimberly Clark and Owens Corning.

Miranda Ballentine, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), anticipates a four-fold increase in corporate renewables procurement by 2025 if the present pace is maintained.

“We are impressed with the growth and expansion in the corporate renewables marketplace, from a broadening sector diversity, and increasingly supportive policy conditions, to utilities and developers rising to meet customer demand and reducing their own generation emissions,” she said.

REBA, also a non-profit, works across customers, suppliers, and policymakers to identify barriers to buying clean and renewable energy and then develop solutions that meet rapidly growing voluntary demand.

Transition

US corporate wind, solar deals at record pace in 2018: BRC