Members of the Green Power Market Development Group will purchase an additional 185 MW from renewables, to bring their total capacity under contract to 360 MW.
The Group is working to build corporate markets for green power. Members include Alcoa, Dow Chemical, DuPont, FedEx Kinko's, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, NatureWorks, Pitney Bowes, Staples and Starbucks. A goal includes building the market for 1,000 MW of new, cost-competitive green power in the United States.
"These companies are using clean energy to produce the products and services people use every day," says Jonathan Lash of WRI. "They are demonstrating that low carbon technologies can be part of mainstream corporate energy purchases."
Projects and purchases this year include 140 facilities in 15 states, including 42 MW of new capacity by Alcoa at its Tapoco hydroelectric facility in eastern Tennessee. The facility was recently certified as low-impact by the Low Impact Hydropower Institute, becoming the largest LIHI-approved hydro project on the east coast, according to the group.
Starbucks Coffee is purchasing 150 million kWh per year of Green-e certified wind energy certificates, equivalent to 20 percent of the annual electricity consumed by its U.S. stores, while IBM will buy 96 million kWh per year of certified wind RECs for its U.S. facilities to become the fourth largest corporate purchase of certified RECs in the U.S. NatureWorks has contracted for 59 million kWh per year of Green-e certified wind RECs while DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Staples are installing 2.2 MW of on-site solar PV systems to generate electricity for their corporate facilities. FedEx Kinko's, Interface and Pitney Bowes committed to 7 MW of new green power and REC purchases.
Seven of the group members now purchase at least 10 percent of their annual U.S. consumption from renewables, and are among the largest non-utility buyers of renewable energy in the U.S. Johnson & Johnson is the country's largest corporate buyer of green power, with Johnson & Johnson and General Motors as the country’s second and third largest corporate users of solar PV systems. Starbucks, IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the three largest corporate buyers of RECs from windfarms.
"Climate change is a global issue, and these leaders demonstrate that their companies can look across borders to find alternative green energy solutions to fit their local circumstances," says Lash.
