Major industry players across the world had a record-breaking renewable energy investment of 36.7 gigawatts (GW) in 2022, representing a year-on-year growth of 18%, as per BloombergNEF.
Remarkably, that growth was achieved despite the global supply chain constraints, energy crisis, and increasing interest rates.
Power purchase agreements
The 1H 2023 Corporate Energy Market Outlook published by BloombergNEF reported the clean energy purchase of 167 significant firms in 36 global markets through power purchase agreements (PPAs). It includes Amazon, Ford, and Google, among many others.
For context, Electrek explained that a PPA is a “contract between an electricity generator and a power purchaser, such as a utility company and in this case, large commercial energy user.”
Overall, major international firms have entered PPAs for 148 GW of renewable energy since 2008. It exceeds France’s overall capacity to produce electricity, as per the report.
“Corporate clean energy buying has been an unwavering constant even as other aspects of ESG investing have come under scrutiny. Companies can access clean energy at scale in most major countries, the economics make sense, and amid turbulent energy markets, PPA’s have become useful risk-mitigation tools for CFO’s.”
Kyle Harrison, BloombergNEF’s Head of Sustainability Research
Meanwhile, US firms have widely employed the virtual PPA concept, which is relatively easier to sign. Instead of directly transmitting its electrons to the consumer, a clean power project sells straight into the wholesale market to profit from the spot price. Moreover, this concept also allows buyers to secure themselves against increases in electricity prices.
Top corporate clean energy buyers – 2022
Leading technology firms made the largest commitment to clean energy last year. American multinational tech giant Amazon dominated the ranking with 10.9 GW of PPAs signed in 2022.
Social media platform Meta, previously known as Facebook Inc., ranked second with 2.6 GW.
The top five were completed by Google (1.6 GW), Microsoft (1.3 GW), and Codelco (1 GW).
Below are the top 10 firms with the largest clean energy investment:
| Solar | Wind | |
| Amazon | 8.7 GW | 2.2 GW |
| Meta | 1.8 GW | 0.8 GW |
| 1.4 GW | 0.2 GW | |
| Microsoft | 0.8 GW | 0.5 GW |
| Codelco | 0.8 GW | 0.2 GW |
| Ford Motor | 0.7 GW | – |
| Ineos | 0.4 GW | 0.2 GW |
| Teck Resources | 0.5 GW | 0.1 GW |
| Borealis | 0.6 GW | 0.6 GW |
| Norsk Hydro | 0.5 GW | 0.5 GW |
As of now, the top 1 Amazon has already accumulated 24.8 GW of PPAs. That considered, the multinational tech giant remains the world’s 7th-biggest holder of the clean energy portfolio.
In addition, the global corporate renewable energy initiative RE100 enlisted 56 new firms last year, aiming to generate all of their energy from renewable sources. It is also worth noting that the 397 RE100 firms have bought a total of 249 TWh of clean power up to this point. However, BNEF projects that they will need a further 290 TWh in 2030 to achieve their objectives.
That said, the demand for renewable will further increase in the coming years. It will also be boosted by firms like Google and Microsoft, which also committed to 100% sustainable energy.
