By Hannah Hunt, Into the Wind, AWEA Blog
And there’s quite a lot to celebrate. Corporate and other non-utility customers have procured more than 10,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power to date, including more than 9,700 MW in power purchase agreements (PPA) through the second quarter of this year. That’s more than Oklahoma’s installed wind capacity, the country’s number two wind state.
#AmericanWindWeek coincided with a historic announcement this week that Apple, Akamai, Etsy and Swiss Re are partnering together to purchase 290 MW from planned wind and solar projects in Illinois and Virginia, respectively. Aggregating demand can help smaller demand customers access renewable energy projects with economies of scale. Just last week, Smuckers announced a 60 MW PPA with a planned Nebraska wind project; the following day, Facebook announced its most recent 139 MW PPA with the Headwaters II Wind Farm in Randolph County, Indiana. Read more here.
ALSO OF POTENTIAL INTEREST
Corporate Buyer’s Guide to Wind Energy
AWEA’s newest primer introduces new corporate customers to the world of wind energy procurement.
The primer explains the multiple ways that a buyer can purchase wind energy. For those interested in learning more about PPAs, it also provides detail on the common terms found in a PPA, the typical negotiation points that can be expected, and the ways in which buyers and sellers can allocate risks inherent to the negotiation points.