Corporate renewable energy procurement reached a new record in 2018, with 3.57 gigawatts of renewable energy projects announced this year to date in the U.S., the Business Renewables Center recently reported.
This number exceeds both the 3.12 GW record set in 2015, the highest previous year, and the 2.89 GW contracted for in 2017, said BRC, which is a membership program at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
The announcement highlights the growth of corporate-backed renewable energy transactions, which have totaled 13.52 GW in the U.S. since 2008, according to data collected by RMI’s BRC.
BRC said that to date, BRC member companies have been involved in 99 percent of all U.S.-based nonutility transactions for renewable energy, and the number of corporates contracting directly for clean energy has grown from just four companies in 2013 to nearly 60 companies currently.
It said that social media giant Facebook was responsible for 2018’s record-tipping deal with its announcement in July that it will purchase 437 MW of solar energy from Pacific Power for a data center in Oregon.
