Companies Defy Pandemic To Sign Up For Most Ever Clean Energy Deals

Companies Defy Pandemic To Sign Up For Most Ever Clean Energy Deals

Corporate PPAs hit new record despite pandemic as new markets and sectors embrace renewable power contracts

Businesses bought a record amount of clean energy in 2020, despite the massive disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, global recession and political upheavals that created uncertainty about energy policies, including the US Presidential election and Brexit.

New figures from BloombergNEF show that more than 130 corporations in sectors ranging from big tech to oil and gas purchased 23.7GW of renewable power, an increase of 18% from 20.1GW in 2019 and 13.6GW in 2018. The market was led by Amazon



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, which announced 35 separate clean energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) in 2020, for a combined total capacity of 5.1GW.

PPAs allow companies to buy power direct from renewable energy project developers under long-term contracts that allow buyers to lock in price certainty and reduce their emissions, as well as helping the developer to finance new projects. A growing number of companies want to source renewable energy to help them meet sustainability goals and net zero targets.

"Corporations faced a wave of adversity in 2020 - internal corporate functions were disrupted on the outset of the pandemic, and many companies saw revenues