Commercial, Solar  -  August 25, 2021

PepsiCo, McCormick, Best Buy, ViacomCBS Claim 140 MW from Texas Solar

PepsiCo, McCormick & Company, Best Buy, and two local ViacomCBS TV stations will soon source clean energy from a 200 MW solar project under development in Texas.

The commercial customers all completed Constellation Offsite Renewables (CORe) energy agreements, an alternative to traditional PPAs, for the purchase of energy from the Big Star project, located in Bastrop County, Texas. Each customer agreed to receive energy and RECs for a collective 140 MW from the project.

The CORe agreement model allows Constellation to provide more customers access to large-scale renewable energy projects by offering a simplified agreement process. The agreements completed with these commercial customers are expected to collectively offset more than 257,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.

“Sourcing renewable energy is a critical step in our journey to more than double our science-based climate goal: reducing GHG emissions by more than 40% by 2030 across our value chain and our pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040,” Ryan Spicer, senior manager of sustainability at PepsiCo, said in a statement. “We are excited to team with Constellation to power our operations with clean, renewable energy to help achieve our goals and be part of the solution by developing brand new sources of renewable energy.”

PepsiCo is currently pursuing a target of net-zero emissions by 2040 and Best Buy hopes to be carbon neutral before that same deadline. Meanwhile, McCormick plans to use the energy sourced from the Big Star project to power both its Dallas manufacturing plant and distribution center with 100% renewable energy.

The Big Star project is being constructed by RWE Renewables and should be commercially operational by Q2 2022.

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