Commercial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables - September 5, 2024
Fifth Third Reduces Energy Use 40% by Adopting Solar
Fifth Third’s use of solar power, combined with internal efforts to reduce energy use, helped the bank lower enterprise-wide grid-based energy use by more than 40%, which is one of the company’s six operational sustainability targets adopted in 2022.
The bank announced achieving two of the six goals so far and that it has made significant progress toward the rest.
Fifth Third has continued to build upon its commitment to renewable energy by installing solar panels at 20 new financial centers at the end of 2023 and into 2024. These projects took place in communities across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. In all, Fifth Third now has 24 retail locations generating up to 80% of annual electric needs at some locations.
The financial institution began switching to renewable energy five years ago. In 2017, Fifth Third set a goal to power the bank's operations across its national footprint — including more than 1,000 retail locations and operational facilities across 11 states — with 100% renewable power.
In late August 2019, Fifth Third achieved this goal with the opening of the Aulander Holloman solar facility in North Carolina. The project was made possible through a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA), which guaranteed that Fifth Third would purchase all the electricity generated, thereby enabling the developer of the solar project to secure funding and build the project. In 2023, the solar power generation from the Aulander Holloman solar facility was over 190,000 megawatt hours.
As part of the agreement and in return for Fifth Third’s financial guarantee, the bank receives claims for adding net-new renewable capacity to the regional grid in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs are issued when one megawatt hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource.
Fifth Third uses a combination of RECs, on-site renewable energy and ongoing energy-efficiency measures across the enterprise to power its operations with 100% renewable power.
“Ultimately, the power purchase agreement has meant that we put more power into the nation’s electricity grid than we use with all our facilities combined,” said Pratik Raval, chief sustainability officer for Fifth Third, in a statement. “Additionally, and equally importantly, this has proven to be a smart financial decision, particularly as an energy price hedging mechanism for the Bank. In that regard, this is a great example of sustainability as a driver for direct business value creation while mitigating our climate impact. These goals are the most aggressive operations sustainability goals we’ve had to date."
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