A recent survey of U.S.-headquartered businesses, the majority of which have been active in buying renewable energy, revealed that 72% of respondents are actively pursuing additional purchases.
Calling the growth in corporate purchases one of the biggest developments in the renewable energy marketplace, PwC said it conducted the survey of 63 "major" commercial and industrial companies, most of which have large energy footprints and have made purchases in the past, to better understand what is driving the growth.
Not surprisingly, what PwC found was that business interest has been primarly driven by a desire to meet corporate sustainability goals and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; 85% of companies actively seeking more renewable energy cited this reason. Other popular drivers included attractive returns on investment, cited by 76% of respondents, and a desire by companies to limit their exposure to energy price variability, cited by 59% of respondents.
As for how the companies surveyed plan build out their portfolios of clean power, four-fifths are expect to use multiple types of transactions, an offsite power purchase agreement and an onsite financial investment, for example. The survey also found that while onsite PPAs remain most popular — chosen by 67% of those actively pursuing procurement — more than half, 58%, intend to purchase traditional offsite PPAs, and 30% plan to pursue offsite virtual PPAs. The responses also point to an increase in offsite versus onsite purchases, PwC said in a report outlining the findings.
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