Major telecoms provider Verizon has secured power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 845MW of solar electricity with four energy giants in the US.
The PPAs with Lightsource BP, Invenergy, EDF Renewables and NextEra Energy Resources will be used to finance six solar projects which are due to be completed over the next two years.
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Invenergy and Verizon have signed three 15-year PPA to fund one 250MW capacity plant located in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) regional market, and two 275MW capacity projects in the Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM) Interconnection market. The telecoms company has signed three more 15-year PPAs with Lightsource BP, EDF Renewables and NextEra Energy for PJM-located projects with a capacity of 152.2MW, 92.5MW and 75MW respectively. The facilities are all expected to come online by the end of 2023.
The agreements mean that Verizon will be supplied with electricity from renewables projects with a total capacity of 1.7GW on the completion of the latest round of solar farms.
James Gowen, Verizon’s chief sustainability officer, said the company had issued a second green bond worth US$1 billion last year, which would be used to fund the offtaking contracts.
“These facilities will bring new renewable energy to the grids that power our networks,” he said, adding the company will continue to make “substantial investments in renewable energy” in the coming years.
Corporations bought 18% more clean energy in 2020 compared with the previous year, according to research from BloombergNEF, with tech giant Amazon and oil and gas group Total leading the transition through long-term PPAs. Verizon was one of the top five biggest spending corporate entities in the market, and the third most influential solar energy buyer, the market researcher found.
