Europe’s biggest renewables generator Statkraft has agreed a ten year corporate PPA to supply a hosted office firm with solar power from the 20MW Beavor Grange solar farm in Devon.
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”.
