Policy ‘blocking EU PPA growth’

Policy barriers remain the main obstacle to the adoption of renewable energy by companies in Europe, according to a new report by the RE100 campaign.

The report – ‘Approaching the tipping point: how corporate users are redefining global electricity markets’ – said there is strong regional variation reflecting the diversity of the legislative frameworks across EU member states.

For example, most of the electricity purchased through PPAs in Europe was in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia in 2016-2017, it said.

However, the 704,300 megawatt-hours consumed from renewables via PPAs represented only 4% of RE100 members’ consumption of clean power in Europe, the report added.

RE100 also said that onsite renewables generation by companies had increased 12-fold in 2016, while Elopak, Marks & Spencer and Sky their reached 100% renewables targets during the year.  

RE100 head at The Climate Group Sam Kimmins said: “With more than 100 international corporations now committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity through RE100, we need to see better, more supportive policies in Europe that can help remove the barriers to going renewable.

“The EU has the potential to unlock the carbon and competitive benefits of PPAs – in a similar way to markets such as the UK, Netherlands and Ireland – all of which are seeing high levels of investment. 

“We urge members of the European Council to ensure there is a supportive policy framework across the whole of the union to enable this investment potential while ensuring the goals of the Paris Agreement are met.”

The report added that globally electricity sourced via PPAs grew four-fold in 2016, while the quantity of electricity sourced from onsite generation increased more than 15 times.

RE100 has 122 members committed to sourcing all their power needs from renewables. The companies have a collective revenue of over $2.75 trillion and operations spanning six continents.

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