Within the race to decarbonize our firms, we’re rewriting the highway indicators as we drive. When shopping for renewable power, totally different approaches name for various avenues of motion, however in 2022, a renewed concentrate on extra exact and systemic decarbonization has begun. We’ve outgrown the system that obtained us right here, and carbon-free power procurement is rising as the following platform for company management.
Within the context of procurement, carbon-free power describes any power purchased that was produced by a useful resource that generates no carbon emissions.
Carbon-free power is the place we all know we have to be, however first the trade has to make its manner via the scrum to outline the very best path ahead. Basic questions stay, all the way in which down to selecting the metrics to measure progress — whether or not that’s expressed in emissions reductions or the addition of carbon-free megawatt-hours of electrical energy. Regardless of the outcomes, these efficiency indicators shall be central to defining the following era of power procurement.
24/7 carbon-free power
You’ll be able to take into consideration 24/7 carbon-free power as a sharper concentrate on bettering the grid’s era and transmission capability to get clear electrons via the grid to the customer any time they want it.
Google is pioneering this strategy. “It’s finest not to consider 24/7 power as a procurement technique however an strategy to remodeling the system and enabling a decarbonized grid for everybody,” stated Sarah Penndorf, requirements and advocacy lead for Google, throughout a session at VERGE 22 final month.
These pursuing 24/7-driven procurement methods say their very own emissions aren’t the top objective — they’re looking for decarbonization of your complete grid. The very fact is that whereas shopping for renewable power via company energy buy agreements or different mechanisms would possibly get firms’ carbon accounting to zero emissions or assist them attain annual power matching objectives, that observe doesn’t essentially result in truly decarbonizing the corporate or the grid.
In distinction, by specializing in the 24/7 objective, company power consumers can funnel direct funding towards the quite a few applied sciences which might be left within the hole between wind and photo voltaic, catalyzing wider unfold adoption of those new improvements for everybody. It is because the 24/7 strategy consists of applied sciences that don’t qualify for renewable power credit (RECs) reminiscent of nuclear and hydropower in addition to battery storage. Below a 24/7 strategy, firms would first concentrate on decarbonizing the power infrastructure nearest to them, then wherever the remainder of their power comes from — and in addition strain their utilities, regulators and policymakers in regards to the lack of 24/7 choices.
Google has partnered with C40 Cities, a worldwide community of mayors taking pressing motion to confront the local weather disaster, to deliver metropolis governments into the dialog, beginning with London, Copenhagen and Paris. The collaboration will present insights and sources to assist these cities reap the benefits of their huge shopping for energy and leverage in revamping their power infrastructure.
The Clear Vitality Consumers Affiliation (CEBA) is a company that understands the monumental process at hand, and after talking with Bryn Baker, a senior director of promoting and coverage innovation for CEBA and moderator of VERGE’s panel, the challenges had been clear: 24/7 is hard, visionary, extremely impactful and will be costly, she advised me. Bigger firms and institutional consumers are extra suited to tackling their power grid head on, however for small and midsize firms with smaller budgets and groups, it may be overwhelming to attempt to decarbonize your power consumption, Baker stated.
Counting emissions that had been by no means launched
Presently, smaller companies’ main strategy to interact in carbon-free power is thru procuring power attribute certificates (EACs). Firms purchase an EAC, representing one MWh of renewable power. As soon as it’s used, the credit score is retired and will be reported in an organization’s Scope 2 or 3 emissions as carbon financial savings. This strategy affords the bottom price per ton for firms to scale back emissions and supplies an avenue for everybody, regardless of their shopping for energy, to interact in carbon reductions.
The panel mentioned how regardless of skepticism about the actual impression of RECs — the primary EAC you should purchase in america — they’ll present an on-ramp to studying about carbon-free power and have been instrumental for company energy buy agreements (PPAs). Because it’s inconceivable to trace a single electron via the facility system, we’ve relied on RECs as means to signify them.
For extra impactful procurement, firms should get credit score for prevented emissions — carbon that by no means needed to be launched. For instance, if an organization buys power from a renewable power plant on a grid the place the remainder of the power comes from coal, it’s ensuring carbon-free electrical energy is used as a substitute of extra coal energy.
For instance, in accordance with WattTime, a nonprofit automating emissions reductions and renewable power siting, supporting a photo voltaic challenge in West Virginia would keep away from 3 times the emissions because the same-sized challenge in California — merely due to the make-up of the grid.
These findings led WattTime to coin the time period “emissionality,” a portmanteau of “emissions” and “additionality.” That phrase suggests consumers might want to suppose in a different way and concentrate on the creation of extra sturdy EACs that higher measure the impression of shopping for PPAs within the dirtiest grids.
VERGE 22 panelist Dennis Carlberg, affiliate vice chairman for college sustainability at Boston College, highlighted how the college’s demand of 205,000 megawatt hours a 12 months — in comparison with Google’s greater than 9 million — meant Boston College “had a unique want and wasn’t satisfied the 24/7 metric would work for his or her college.” He stated that the college set a objective “to maximise the college’s funding to attain probably the most quantity of carbon reductions potential with out elevating tuition, as rapidly because it may.”
After months of study with inner and exterior stakeholders, Boston College concluded the biggest impression it may obtain was matching 100% of its power for the following 15 years, via a PPA not from the close by grid in New England however from a wind farm quickly to be inbuilt South Dakota.
Organizations reminiscent of Boston College are left to create their very own approaches to measuring impression, resulting in inconsistencies throughout procurement methodologies. The panel illustrated how there’s way more that should be agreed upon earlier than making a standardized strategy to measure prevented emissions, beginning with defining what makes a grimy grid and what counts as “cleansing it up.”
Standardizing the calculations would unlock a vital new degree of element and validity for RECs and the power for firms to really measure their carbon impression, the panelists prompt. Carbon emissions counters reminiscent of WattTime and EnergyTag, a nonprofit constructing a marketplace for hourly power certificates, are each creating formulation for the very best approximation. To have the ability to quantify both methodology, whether or not that be emissionality or 24/7, we want higher information.
The information wanted to take the following step
The present era of carbon-free power consumers lacks the info to really drive impression. Presently, firms generally obtain their emissions on an annual foundation, regardless of the carbon depth of the grid altering by the second.
On prime of that, grid operators even have restricted visibility into the exploding quantities of distributed power sources coming onto the grid. This provides extra producers and native choices, which additional complicates the power to trace emissions.
The granularity can go additional to incorporate hourly timestamps, real-time carbon intensities and the places the place the electrical energy is produced. These “permit us to have an attribution system that acknowledges new advantages. It begins with the timestamp, however there is perhaps environmental justice advantages or supplying power to deprived communities or tribal lands,” defined Zach Livingston of Cleartrace, a company creating new strategies for a way decarbonization info is collected and transacted.
Renewable procurement firm Level10 Vitality and nonprofit Nature Conservancy are pursuing one thing comparable, releasing a white paper on quantifying a neighborhood strategy to procurement. Salesforce is creating a procurement matrix that might permit firms to decide on to obtain power relying on their land utilization or impacts on wildlife.
The actual impression is to find the precise mixture of 24/7 power and emissionality that is sensible for every particular person firm. Like all avenues for motion in local weather, we want each. CEBA’s Baker closed the session by encouraging attendees to ask how their group can drive a bigger impression — by embracing the complete suite of procurement choices for driving true grid decarbonization and pursuing different kinds of management, together with coverage, regulatory or utility engagement. Regardless of which nexus we discover ourselves in, carbon-free power procurement is the clear subsequent step for firms to soak up tackling the local weather disaster.
