More than 60 companies have joined forces with several environmental groups to launch a new coalition, called the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), to promote the development of 60 GW of renewable energy in the United States by 2025. The companies will work to identify barriers that companies face with utilities and regulators in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and then develop solutions that meet growing corporate demand. The 60 GW of renewable energy is enough capacity to replace all the coal-fired power plants in the U.S. that are expected to retire in the next four years. Read on to learn more about the alliance, its members, and its goals!
REBA is led by four non-profit organizations that have brought together their expertise in transforming energy markets: Business for Social Responsibility, the World Resources Institute, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund. Collectively, the alliance is focused on getting decision makers on board, helping companies understand their purchasing options, and streamlining the transaction process by facilitating dialogue among corporate customers, utilities, and policy makers.
Large energy consumers across the U.S. routinely face blockades in their attempts to purchase renewable energy. Many have relied on buying power directly from renewable energy developers through power purchase agreements (PPAs) in order to run on energy cleaner than that provided by utility grids. However, these PPAs are difficult to find in some states and largely unavailable to smaller companies.
Almost 6 GW of renewable energy must be developed per year to achieve the alliance's goal of 60 GW of developed renewable energy by 2025. In 2015, companies purchased over 3 GW of renewable energy, tripling the 2014 total. Currently, 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emission or to buy clean energy. Members of REBA include Microsoft, which in 2012 implemented an effort to cut its carbon emissions by 9.5 million metric tons, and Facebook, which aims to source half of its electricity from renewables by 2018.
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