Commercial, Distributed Energy Resources, Energy Procurement, CHP, Commercial, Distributed Generation, Finance  -  January 20, 2016

Clean energy guru sees more corporate renewables purchases

It’s the time of year for 2016 predictions, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Chairman of the Advisory Board, Michael Liebreich, anticipates corporations will continue their trend toward directly sourcing renewable energy to power their organizations.

As renewable energy credits, or RECs, continue falling out of favor – partially because they have gained a reputation as "greenwashing tools" – companies are increasingly finding ways to generate renewable energy directly onsite or to purchase it directly through long-term power purchase agreements. This trend is expected to continue, if not accelerate, this year.

“More and more companies are feeling pressure from investors to save money on energy and raw material costs, get the right side of consumer trends, reduce their exposure to rebounding commodity prices, improve their physical resilience, or explore opportunities themselves in the energy transition,” Liebreich recently wrote in a blog post.

He added:

We have seen more and more companies committing to clean energy over time – first perhaps by buying certificates, but more and more by building their own renewable energy capacity. A decade ago the thing to do was to announce plans to go carbon-neutral, now it is to go 100% renewable energy. It started with IT and financial services companies, but has spread into consumer goods, white goods and other sectors.

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