Commercial, Wind  -  May 17, 2023

EMD Electronics Expands RE Through VPPA

EMD Electronics, the U.S. and Canada electronics business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a science and technology company, signed a 16-year, off-site, virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA).

The agreement was signed with Recurrent Energy for the construction of the Liberty County Solar project in Texas. 

Combined with the Azure Sky wind and storage project, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will match 90% of the company’s purchased electricity consumption in the U.S. from renewable energies. 

The company will match 55% of its purchased electricity consumption from renewable energies globally. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, aims to increase this to 80% by 2030.

With 40 megawatts (MW) of the 100 MW project capacity, EMD Electronics is the anchor buyer within the Net Zero Consortium for Buyers, an aggregation of corporations organized by the Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. The Liberty County Solar project alone will match 25% of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s purchased electricity consumption in the U.S. and approximately 10% globally. The project is expected to be operational in 2024 and will be located north-east of Houston in Liberty County, Texas.

“We have set ourselves ambitious goals and want to do our part to enable more sustainable supply chains worldwide as well as being climate-neutral by 2040. In addition to matching our electric consumption with renewable energy, our research and development work can support our customers on their path to greater sustainability. With these milestones, we are able to support the fast-growing semiconductor industry with sustainable business practices,” said Kai Beckmann, Member of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and CEO Electronics, in a statement. “We are continuing to actively pursue renewable energy and not only in the United States.”