We joined the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) on 28th June 2018 for a workshop exploring corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for wind and solar energy. The discussion received contributions by the IWEA, the Department of Energy, Brookfield Renewables, and Elgin Energy. We addressed the PPA question in terms of its relevance to the Irish data hosting industry.
How can the policy system facilitate the co-evolution of the growing renewable energy and digital industries?
There were some interesting developments highlighted at this session.
- Energy demand growth of digital corporates is showing a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately ten percent.
- The EU Commission’s new Renewable Energy Directive will make it the responsibility of member state governments to facilitate the establishment of a robust PPA market.
- In the EMEA region corporate PPAs are becoming more popular. Of the top corporate PPA deals in 2017 – digital companies made up three of the top four deals. Google (Avangrid renewables) – 196MW, Amazon (Lincoln Clean Energy) – 253 MW, Microsoft (General Electric) – 37MW. These deals were all for wind power.
- RE100 – It is relevant for Ireland that about 60% of the companies signed up to RE100 commitments have operations in Ireland. We need to ensure we can meet the corporate demand for renewable energy.
The PPA topic is explored further in our 2018 Q2 update.
