Running for 15 years, today’s deal will see the Co-op taking all the output from the dedicated 9MW site, pictured, near Wisbech.

Peak output from Coldham’s 19,000 panels will be enough, the Co-op calculates, to power 55 of its food stores, a demand equalling that from 2,000 homes.

Chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said; “The launch of Coldham solar farm, as a result of our PPA with ScottishPower Renewables, shows Co-op’s commitment to achieving Net Zero in our own operations by 2035.

“Co-op maintains that the government should make decarbonising the grid a top priority”, Khoury-Haq went on. “

“However, businesses still have their part to play, and this solar farm is a further step in Co-op’s approach to renewable energy procurement through a mixture of PPAs and embedded generation.”

ScottishPower Renewables boss Charlie Jordan responded: “We’re delighted to partner with companies that understand the importance of decarbonising their operations.

“By securing long-term commitments, PPAs provide stability, certainty, and ultimately accelerate our journey towards a greener, more resilient energy landscape.”

Enriched with 7,500 native trees planted by SPR, the Coldham solar farm sits next to SPR’s existing windfarm, and benefits from the same grid connection.

The Co-op recently signed of a 15-year CPPA to offtake from a 34MW solar farm in north Yorkshire, Its arrays are due to come fully onstream next year.

The post Co-op collects divi from ScottishPower’s solar PPA appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Ocean Winds is a 50:50 joint venture by Madrid-based developer EDP Renewables and retailer ENGIE. The offtake is enough to power a notional 650,000 UK homes annually.

Located in the Moray Firth off Scotland’s north east coast, the 882MW offshore farm is currently under construction, and anticipated to generate its first power in 2024.

The PPA deal rests on Ocean Winds speeding up the park’s construction. Moray West will support Amazon’s goal of powering all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the company’s original target.

Paulo Almirante, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice-President Renewables & Energy Management, said: “This deal strengthens ENGIE’s leadership position for CPPAs, through which we have sold a substantial capacity of renewable electricity generated by its wind and solar assets.”

“This CPPA’s innovative character shows it is possible to create, together with Amazon, the conditions to achieve the UK objectives of renewables deployment and Net Zero economy.

ENGIE signed 19 ground-breaking deals last year, spanning five countries, covering over 1GW of clean energy capacity, bolstering ENGIE’s CPPA portfolio to 7.3GW.

Every year since 2021, Amazon’s investments in solar and wind have enthroned the company as Europe’s as well as Britain’s biggest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.

The multinational announced 39 new renewables projects across Europe last year, adding more than 1GW of dedicated low carbon capacity to the region’s grids.

Between 2014 and 2022, Amazon says its clean power investments in Britain alone amount to £285 million. They supported 600 local jobs in 2022 alone.

Lindsay McQuade, director of energy for Amazon Web Services covering Europe, said: “Projects like Moray West will play a critical role in decarbonising Amazon’s operations and the UK grid.”

“We are on track to meet our ambitious goal of powering our global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. In 2022, 90% of electricity consumed by Amazon was attributable to renewable energy sources”.

Bautista Rodriguez, CEO at the Ocean Winds joint venture, said: “I am proud that the collective efforts of the Moray West and Ocean Winds teams, working closely with ENGIE, helped secure this important deal with Amazon.

“The programme for delivery is ambitious but the project and sponsor boards have supported us to keep the project firmly on track.”

Moray West represents continued investment by Ocean Winds to deliver its 2025 targets of up to 7GW of projects in operation, or construction, and up to 10 GW under advanced development. The project, part of the company’s 6GW portfolio of secured offshore wind farms in the UK, is expected to inject up to £500 million in the local Scottish economy throughout its lifespan, and during construction phases it will create and support more than 1,000 jobs in Scotland, with 70 long-term operational roles. Local supply chains are prioritised, through a new operational team based in the coastal town of Buckie.

The post Amazon backs Moray West & Ocean Winds with 473MW PPA appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Clean energy investors Gresham House manage the farm near Axminster and are Statkraft’s partners in the deal.

Beneficiaries Workspace will receive REGOs – renewable energy guarantees of origin – for the farm’s power, currently equal to two-thirds of the hosted office company’s electricity use, as well as to that of a notional 6,000 homes.

Workspace also agree to use Statkraft’s firming service, which converts as-generated power into baseload, allowing the company to incorporate this into their standard supply contract.

With 6GW of third-party renewable and flex generation under contract, Statkraft claims it is the UK’s leading renewables trader.

A firming service is where Statkraft takes the as-generated power from the farm, and buys power from the market when the generator is not producing power. It sells surplus output during high production periods, meaning a pre-agreed consistent amount of power is provided to the offtaker.

Statkraft says commercial consumers are increasingly showing commitment to renewable generation through specific power plants or construction projects. Corporate PPAs allow them to take off a specific renewable projects’ physical power, or its pricing.

The Norwegian state-owned integrated retailer supports generators and end users by finding their partners and helping them to mitigate their respective risks.

Long-term agreement such as with Gresham House provides certainty to the generator, boosting  investor confidence and thus spurring construction of more renewable energy infrastructure.  A long-term  locked-in price for their power brings budget certainty to both the offtaker and the asset owner.

Acting as a market integrator, Statkraft sourced renewable generators in the UK by issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to find appropriate renewable projects looking for a long term offtaker. It also searched for corporates looking to source clean energy as part of their green ambitions.

Andy Cooper, Statkraft’s head of downstream, said: “We’re delighted to bring Beavor Grange and Workspace together in this long-term agreement. Both parties have secured prices for ten years and using Statkraft’s Firming service, Workspace are able to easily transfer this CPPA into a standard supply contract”.

“We’re anticipating even higher volumes of business in this area during 2024.”

Sonal Jain, head of sustainability at Workspace, said: “Our partnership with Statkraft for a long-term power purchase agreement marks a significant step towards our Net Zero carbon commitment.

The recent agreement at COP28 for countries to triple their renewable energy capacity by 2030 is supported by decisions like ours, which enable new capacity on the grid, rather than simply procuring from the existing supply. This is by far the most responsible way for businesses to secure a substantial share of clean, green electricity.”

Wayne Cranstone, investment director at Gresham House said: “We are delighted to have signed another PPA with Statkraft and to have the Corporate PPA with Workspace Group plc. It is important for us to be able to secure index-linked, long-term revenue for the power produced from our solar farm, so this 10-year CPPA is ideal”.

The post Statkraft inks CPPA to supply Workspace from 20MW Devon solar farm appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Register for the webinar here.

The renewable PPA market has continued to grow rapidly despite the Covid-19 and energy crises, there is a demand from both parties to establish contracts that will benefit both parties. Buyers get green energy, important for net zero targets, CSR and hedging against price and volume volatility. While the asset owner is able to use the PPA to increases bankability of the project, allowing finance particularly as subsidies for renewable energy projects have ceased.

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) mean many different things to many different people. The basic principle: a contract whereby an electricity consumer agrees to purchase energy directly from a power generator at an agreed price is straightforward enough. They are used for brown electricity as well as green. Renewable PPAs can be sleeved, physical, virtual, onsite, corporate, retail and utility to name just some of the structure that are used.

Power Purchase Agreements provide financial certainty to you and the project developer, which removes a significant roadblock to building new renewable facilities.

What are the challenges, and what are the emerging opportunities to lock in clean power?

Register for the webinar here.

The post What makes a successful PPA? – Register for the webinar appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The organisation, which embraces grocery retailing, distribution and funeral home operation, will see its outlets part-supplied from developer Voltalia’s new 34 MWp farm at Eastgate, near Scarborough.

Co-operative ownership guarantees each member a vote in important strategic decisions and in annual leadership elections.  Voting rights are independent of the cash value of shares held.

Voltalia has begun installation of Eastgate’s planned 625,000 panels.  The first of its annual output rated at 34,000 MWh will flow by 2025, ready to meet around 7.5% of the national organisation’s consumption, spread across its 170 Co-op food stores and 500 funeral homes.

En route to making its own operations carbon neutral by 2035, the Co-op also continues to call for energy market reform.

Quoted on the Paris stock market, Voltalia has generating capacity of more than 2.7 GW in operation or under construction in four renewables technologies.  It controls a pipeline of projects under development representing a total capacity of 16.1 GW.

Its CEO Sébastien Clerc said: “We are very proud to support the Co-op in their Net Zero target by providing clean electricity in the food industry, reaching millions of individuals and enabling us to raise awareness of more sustainable and responsible consumption.

From his client, Co-op group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq replied: “The signing of this corporate PPA is a significant milestone demonstrating Co-op’s goal to green the energy grid and create transparency in the renewable energy market. “Not only will this agreement unlock more green energy, it will also enable energy security, drive economic growth and move us closer to net zero.

“That’s why we still believe that grid decarbonisation should be an absolute priority for the Government“, said the Co-op boss.

The post Co-op primes 15 year divi from Yorkshire solar farm appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Wholesale energy price volatility, coupled with an increasing focus on reducing carbon emissions, mean that many businesses now want to buy their energy from homegrown renewable energy sources.

From wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) to hydropower and biomass, there is a huge amount of choice for businesses who want to procure clean power – often the first natural step in an organisation’s carbon reduction strategy.

However, with demand for renewables outstripping supply, many businesses are now considering their options away from a standard grid supply offering.

For owners and operators of independent energy generation assets – either as your primary business or on-site at your premises – this is a real opportunity to sell your power to eager corporate buyers.

This can be done via a fixed or flexible Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

As an established method of managing energy sales and risk in generation projects, PPAs encompass all the commercial terms required to deliver a route to market for generation. They include start date, delivery schedules, pricing mechanisms, and payment terms and can include renewable certificates such as Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) and Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs). They are usually valid for several years and offer pre-set or to-be-determined prices for energy purchases.

That said, it’s not as simple as it sounds. The most suitable PPA for your asset will depend on a number of factors, including:

• Annual output: fixed PPAs can be a good choice for generators with a limited annual output. However, if your annual output is 6 GWh or more, flexible PPAs could offer a better route to market
• The nature of your generation: some renewables, such as biomass power, offer a steadier output regardless of weather conditions. Others, like wind and solar PV, are more intermittent and weather-dependent
• Your time constraints and risk appetite: the energy market is complex, and your familiarity with it can be a deciding factor when choosing the best PPA for your asset
• Your organisation’s objectives: whether you want a steady and risk-free revenue stream or wish to optimise profits with a flexible agreement, your goals will ultimately determine which PPA is best for you.

Our new guide, ‘The power potential of independent generators: How to sell your power to meet business demand for renewable energy’, outlines the important areas to consider when choosing the best route to market for your power. It is available to download here.

The post How independent generators can meet business demand for renewable energy appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The FTSE 250 soft drinks business is partnering with Atrato Onsite Energy to source clean electricity, including from the developer’s new 28MWp solar farm in Northamptonshire.

Squeaky, based in Wardour Street in London’s adland, introduced the parties.  CEO Chris Bowden’s team claims to have been behind Europe’s first renewables PPA deal, signed as long ago as 2008.

Under this new 10-year deal, Atrato’s new solar farm on an old quarry site near Wellingborough will, once commissioned early next year, make power exclusively for Britvic.

Current output, for currant-based consumption

Rated at 28MWp, Wellingborough will have capacity to make 33.3 GWh of clean energy a year, the equivalent of powering 11,500 homes.

The juice that then flows – electrical, rather than culinary – will power Britvic’s UK plants, including factories in Beckton, East London and Leeds.  These can output 2,000 recyclable bottles per minute, across a portfolio of leading brands.

Last year 57% of Britvic’s UK energy came from renewable sources, up from 28% in 2018.

Via its Healthier People, Healthier Planet programme, the beverage combine – group sales of £1.62 billion in 2022, with net profits of £140 million –  says it is tackling its carbon footprint head on. Solar electricity, either made onsite or via exclusive PPAs, is one step in establishing a more sustainable supply chain.

Committed to Net Zero by 2050, Britvic says it leads the industry as the first UK soft drinks company to have a 1.5°C target verified by the Science Based Targets initiative.  Since 2017 it has cut direct carbon emissions by 34%.

Britvic is investing £4 million in a heat recovery system at the East London site. A new Corporate Power Purchase Agreement in Ireland will ensure Ballygowan, the water brand, is produced using 100% renewable electricity harnessed from Irish wind turbines.

Atrato will supply Britvic with solar electricity on a “pay as you generate” basis. Uniquely though, power will be delivered on a baseload basis, consistent with the consumption needs of the drinks bottler.

“Careful, man, there’s a beverage here”

Other than its 10 year duration, no commercial terms were disclosed for the deal. Atrato said it has enabled a full financing of the Wellingborough park.  Law firm Burges Salmon advised Atrato in relation to the deal.

In 19 months since its share float, Atrato has built a portfolio of 40 UK solar sites. Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Anglian Water, Nissan and Amazon feature among industrial clients seeking its low carbon electricity.

Britvic’s head of buying Matt Swindall commented: “This deal represents a significant milestone for Britvic as we continue to partner with home-grown renewable energy projects to power our business.

“The 10 year deal also establishes stability, enabling us to plan more efficiently over the coming years.

From Atrato, managing director Gurpreet Gujral responded:  “We are thrilled to enter this new corporate PPA with Britvic. Our highly innovative PPA structure provides Britvic with a consistent source of renewable energy that matches their electricity needs. This project exemplifies our commitment to providing long term and attractively priced clean energy to our clients. Following an award-winning IPO, Atrato has become the ‘go to’ corporate clean energy provider.”

Chris Bowden, managing director of Squeaky Clean Energy said: “Having pioneered the use of corporate PPAs in the UK it has become abundantly clear that new and innovative contracting structures are needed. We are incredibly proud to have scored another first with this unique arrangement”.

The post Drink in that Northants sunshine! Britvic quaffs 33.3 GWh, Tangos with PPA broker Squeaky appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Under the parties’ ten-year deal, Octopus Energy’s PV farm at Breach, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, will provide around 64 GWh every year, equivalent to 14% of Iceland’s electricity needs for its total UK estate of 1,000 stores.

On the parties’ calculations, the 67 MWp Breach facility thus eliminates 23,000 tonnes of CO2 pollution, amounting to the planting of 110,000 trees every year.

Octopus Energy Generation acquired the site in June 2022 on behalf of ORIT, the privately held group’s investment trust. Construction began in November 2022, and the farm is scheduled to generate this autumn.

Last month Vodafone signed a deal with British Gas’ parent Centrica and developer Mytilineos to guarantee supply of 216 GWh per year from five solar parks, earmarked for consented sites stretching from Dorset to Nottinghamshire.

Of the Iceland deal, a happy Zoisa North-Bond, boss of Octopus Energy Generation declared: “It’s great to see a massive British firm like Iceland Foods accelerate its renewable energy journey, freezing its foods with the power of the sun.

“Iceland has been a trailblazer in sustainability – and the more companies that follow their lead, the quicker we can reduce our economy’s dependence on expensive fossil fuels and shift to a future powered by clean energy.”

Iceland’s CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal welcomed the reliability of the ten year deal, secured, as he noted, “at a significant discount to the current wholesale price”.

“This partnership is an exciting step in our journey towards achieving net zero by 2040″, said Iceland’s top geezer.

“It gives us some clarity on our energy costs for the coming years”, This helps to mitigate the impact of the volatility that has plagued the industry for the past 12 months”.

Iceland’s founder Richard Walker has declared his intention of seeking to become a Conservative MP at the next General Election.

As one of Europe’s biggest renewables investors, Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team oversees clean generation assets valued at nearly £6 billion. Among its prominent PPA deals is last January’s agreement to despatch 160GWh of onshore wind power every year from Cumberhead in Lanark to Kimberly Clark’s manufacturing and distribution facilities across the UK.

The post “Once more unto the Breach”: Iceland plugs into Octopus’s Cambs solar farm appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The trio’s PPA, their second struck in twelve months, will fund the Greek-based developer’s construction of five consented farms from Dorset to Nottinghamshire.   Construction is due to be completed by early next year.

As offtaker, Centrica will sell a ‘significant’ proportion of their output to Vodafone, speeding the company towards its target of sourcing 44% of its power by 2025 from UK-based green sources. The remainder will be traded by the energy company.

Celebrating its customer’s underpinning of the new farms’ funding, Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea, pictured, said: “The deal gives Vodafone UK access to clean, high quality and affordable renewable electricity for the next ten years, offering price certainty and improved energy security”.

Already in the UK 100% of the grid electricity which Vodafone uses is from certified renewable sources, the Centrica boss noted.

In May the trio signed a PPA by which Centrica would sell the phone company 109 GWh from three new solar farms in the Midlands, totalling 110 MWp in capacity.  The first is now generating, with the rest soon to follow.  Along with two onshore wind farms in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, Vodafone UK now has dedicated access to renewable power from 10 sites across the UK.

The supply deal was announced as industry body SolarEnergyUK confirmed today that no longer subsidised instals of rooftop solar PV, overwhelmingly on homes and all under 50kWp in potential, doubled in 2022 on 2021’s figures.

Confirming figures from technical standards overseer the MCS, the solar lobbyists said over 130,000 roofs received new solar arrays last year, almost equalling completions for the previous two years combined.

Last month’s fixing of 16,043 new systems under 50kWp potential was three times the total for January 2022, setting a new monthly record for volumes of subsidy-free installations.

“Solar is surely one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK right now”, said the lobbyists’ CEO Chris Hewett. “The rapid increase in sales is great news for the economy, public pockets, Net Zero and of course for energy security too”,

But he warned that even the current pace of installation must double again for consumer-scale systems to match the government’s target set for all solar power in its Energy Security Strategy published in April.

Even that heightened target is “clearly achievable”, Hewett advised, since it would be less than levels achieved in 2011 and 2012, at the height of the Feed-in Tariff era.

The post Smart phoning: Vodafone dials into 5 solar farms, as domestic on-roof PV instals double appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Customers of Octopus, Britain’s fourth biggest retailer, could be receiving output from the first of the farm’s three phases as early as 2024, under a long-term deal signed today with Shell Energy Europe acting as broker.

Jointly owned by SSE Renewables and Equinor, and with a minority 20% stake held by Norwegian wind developer Vågrønn, Dogger Bank is now under construction in three equal 1.2GW stages in the North Sea, between 130 km and 190 km off Northumbria.  SSE leads the development & construction, sinking the A phase’s first foundations only this year. Equinor, with Norway’s government holding a two-thirds equity stake, will manage operations.

As non-generating intermediary, Shell Energy Europe is contracted with Dogger Bank’s owners to buy 20% of its planned output.

The 2.4TWh which Shell contracts to sell each year to Octopus from all three fully operational phases equates to around 24% of the retailer’s current supply to its customers. The sum is equivalent in round terms to demand from 800,000 UK homes.

Each phase of Dogger Bank is to set to spin for at least 35 years.  Every Haliade-X turbine supplied by General Electric for the three phases will have a diameter of more than 214 metres, comfortably longer than two football pitches.

Octopus Energy Group’s head of energy Matt Bunney declared: “If the energy crisis has taught us anything, it is that we need to move fast to an energy system based on cheap renewables – and Dogger Bank will help to get us there”.

“We already manage renewable energy assets worth over £5bn, and I’m delighted that our team managed to secure a long-term contract under Shell’s PPA on top of this, bringing 2.4TWh of green energy straight into our customers’ homes.”

Commercial terms were not disclosed.

Launched only six years ago, Octopus Energy Group’ global ambitions now embrace operations in 14 countries.  Stake-building in 2021 by US and Canadian institutions including ex-Vice President Al Gore’s investment fund value the privately-held group close to the US $5 billion mark.

In Britain alone, it serves 3.4 million domestic customers, either directly under its Octopus Energy brand, or in white-labelled supply via M&S Energy, Affect Energy, Ebico, London Power and Co-op Energy.

Enabling the back-office functions of today’s deal – as well as recent ones – is Kraken Technologies, the group’s core intellllectual asset, its proprietary, in-house platform for fulfilment and billing.

Through its advanced data and machine learning capabilities, Kraken automates much of the energy supply chain, underpinning operational efficiency.

Kraken’s technology has been licensed worldwide to support over 28 million customer accounts, through deals with EDF Energy, Good Energy, E.ON energy and Australia’s Origin Energy.

Dogger Bank is the shallowest region of sea bed remaining from the Doggerland expanse of dry landscape – reconstructed map pictured, – which connected Britain to continental north-west Europe, before rising sea levels after 6,500 BCE flooded the land bridge.

The post Doggone wind! Octopus shells out for offtake from world’s biggest offshore farm appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Why should you entrust us with your energy?
Because Falck Renewables – Next Solutions is an experienced and trustworthy operator, part of a large international group that manages over 300GWh of renewable energy in the UK alone, mainly from wind farms, it works all over the world with renewable plants for over 1.3GW of installed power.

Unlike many of its competitors, Falck Renewables – Next Solutions operates in a lean way and with the flexibilitythat is usually typical of small businesses. This is why it offers tailor made contracts, designed to the needs of both parties. Our goal, in fact, is not that to forge real partnerships with producers so that they can maximize their earnings rather than just increase the number of customers.

For this reason Falck Renewables – Next Solutions does not offer fixed price energy withdrawal contracts or long periods ones. Our fees are commensurate with the price of energy, our main objective is that our partners are happy with the proposed economic conditions, as well as their overall peace of mind. We take the risks associated with the variable nature of renewable plants. In short, our task is to make a not so easy activity, become an easy one instead.

Our secret? The great strength of Falck Renewables – Next Solutions lies in the all-round competence that allows it to support producers in the management of all energy issues, encouraging informed decisions on the energy markets supporting the producers with strategic advisory activities. We can say that we invite producers to “challenge” the market with us and we do it with the awareness and experience of those who have all the credentials and skills to do so. This is why we propose to producers to diversify their income: we are in fact convinced that the profit should not come solely from the sale of energy, but also from ancillary services and services to the national electricity gridwhich – if provided correctly – can generate equally significant income.

The ecological transition is an important challenge that will involve producers and consumers in the next years.
Our task is to make renewable assets increasingly competitive, and if from a technological point of view this goal has already been achieved, there is still a lot of potential to be exploited on the energy market.

Get in touch to offer us your renewable energy, we will offer you the best market conditions. fneuk@falckrenewables.com

The post Do you produce Renewable Energy? Sell it to us! appeared first on theenergyst.com.

By Mark Rose, Sales & Marketing Director

Welcome to the second in a series of posts from Rob Kerr – Customer Service Director, Anton Roberts – Commercial Director and myself on some of the most pressing issues in the energy industry today – and how we’re responding.

Please note that any opinions here our own comments, and not official positions of TotalEnergies Gas & Power. I’ll take a brief look at energy markets, but the main focus will be Net Zero – what TotalEnergies are doing to work towards our goals and the options available to you to help reduce emissions.

What is currently going on in the market?

It is safe to say that events so far in 2022 have been truly shocking, and our thoughts are with those directly affected in Ukraine, and their families.

These events have also further impacted a turbulent UK energy market. Since last year the spiralling cost of energy has dominated the news, alongside a wider cost of living crisis with inflation being at record levels. In the business energy market, we’ve seen increasing costs for end users, although the implementation of MOD 797 earlier this year means the non-domestic sector will not share the costs of future gas supplier failure in the domestic market. TotalEnergies Gas & Power played an active role in this change being made, which should save more than £100m for the non-domestic market.

Increasing wholesale energy prices have been driven by a lack of storage and JKM (Japan Korea Marker Benchmark LNG prices), exacerbated by the events in Ukraine, with gas prices reaching a high of almost 520p/therm in March and electricity prices also spiking to a high of nearly £500 per MWh.

The rise in prices means that energy costs will now be at the forefront of business customers’ minds as they becomes an even greater proportion of expenditure, particularly when fixed contracts end or for those on flexible contracts. This will be exacerbated by rises in non-commodity costs because of government investment in renewable energy and supplier failure, and the impacts of inflation.

How will Net Zero be affected by current market challenges?

With the current wholesale price crisis affecting the industry and end users, and concerns over security of supply, it is easy to think that Net Zero will start to play second fiddle. But in some ways, it is more important than ever.

• The window of opportunity is limited – All the science says that averting a climate disaster means acting now, and not delaying decisions. The UK government set a target of Net Zero by 2050, but there are also some equally challenging targets in the shorter term, not least a 50% reduction on 1990 levels by 2025. The world needs to act now if it stands a chance of keeping climate change to within 1.5 degrees Celsius (on 1990 levels).
• Improve security of supply for UK PLC – Recent events have highlighted the risks of a reliance on energy supplies from unstable sources. An investment in low carbon generation (nuclear, wind, solar) would reduce that reliance, although the transition will clearly take time and investment given the lead times on development. The government has recently launched a new energy strategy with nuclear and renewables at the heart of it.
• Measures will be more financially attractive than ever – Over the last couple of years there has been a strong trend for large scale solar and wind projects to become more cost effective, and the International Renewable Energy Agency said that in 2020 almost two thirds of the wind and solar projects built globally were able to generate cheaper electricity than the world’s cheapest coal plants. The recent wholesale price rises will also make smaller scale on-site generation more attractive in avoiding the high prices and fluctuations, as well as building green credentials for customers. Payback times on these installations has fallen significantly given a fall in costs and the current electricity prices.

What is TotalEnergies doing?

At TotalEnergies we have a commitment to be a world-class player in the energy transition, and want to do this by producing and selling energy that is affordable, cleaner, reliable and accessible to the greatest number of people globally. We’ve set some ambitious targets for 2030 both on direct and indirect emissions with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050.

Renewables are at the heart of this target, with an aim to have 100 GW of capacity by 2030. This commitment is reflected in our investment in offshore wind in the UK, with stakes in over 5 GW of capacity including the ScotWind project. This will be enough to power over 3 million homes when they are all operational.

Within TotalEnergies Gas & Power it is a priority to help customers on their journey to net zero. We offer a range or renewable power and gas products across small and large business and the public sector. We also offer carbon offsetting, and access to tools to understand the efficiency of sites. We’re taking steps internally to work towards net zero, procuring renewable energy at our sites and looking to reduce the emissions of our fleet over the coming year.

What options are available for customers to help reduce emissions?

There are a range of options available to customers, each with different pros and cons – although from a cost perspective there aren’t any clear winners due to the market price of REGOs rising considerably recently.

On-site generation – If a business has a site with the space for on-site generation such as solar this could be an attractive option. This can provide a visible statement of green credentials, and also some protection against market volatility. However, most businesses will not have the space for this or own the property, and if it is feasible will either require a large upfront CAPEX investment or the commitment to a long term PPA. It will also cause disruption at the site while it is in the project stage. Given recent wholesale price rises the case for this investment is looking better than it has previously.

Corporate PPA – These are long term contracts under which the end user (e.g. business or Local Authority) agrees to purchase electricity directly from an energy generator. A licensed supplier also needs to be a party in the contract to make this agreement work. The advantages are that the end user can choose what they want the specific renewable source to be. On the other hand, it can be difficult to find a generation source that meets requirements, and the process to structure the PPA can be time consuming and complex, with involvement from multiple parties.

Traceable renewable products – These types of products are becoming more popular where the supplier has both the power or the gas and the renewables certificates (REGOs or RGGOs) to go with it at the same time. The supplier will then match those specific certificates to your supply. This provides the assurance of knowing specifically where the power has come from, without the complexity of a Corporate PPA. It also opens up the opportunity to request certain generation types or locations (e.g. a Local Authority that wants all it’s power sourced from a specific region).

REGO/RGGO backed products – When power or gas is produced from a renewable source, a REGO (Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin) or RGGO (Renewable Gas Guarantee of Origin) is also created. This can then be purchased by suppliers and be allocated, sometimes separately from the power itself. From this you can effectively match your consumption to generation from a renewable source –  a relatively simple and common method of signing up to renewable power, but you won’t always be able to match it up to the specific generation source.

Carbon Offsetting – Carbon offsetting can be an alternative for customers in circumstances when the emissions can’t be eliminated. For example green gas certificates (RGGOs) have limited availability and are very expensive, so other options may need to be considered. There are carbon offsetting certificates that can be purchased from a variety of projects in the UK and abroad, and these can be matched to a business’s emissions to net off the environmental impact.

We are heading into a critical time in the shaping of an energy policy that can provide us with security of supply, while staying on the journey towards Net Zero.

https://business.totalenergies.uk/carbon-net-zero to find out more.

The post The Journey Towards Net Zero appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Octopus Energy has added Spain as its eleventh country of operation, paying undisclosed millions for start-up Umeme.

The post ‘Hola, pulpo!’ Octopus buys Spanish energy start-up appeared first on theenergyst.com.