US telecoms provider Verizon has entered into virtual power purchase agreements equating to an aggregate renewables capacity of 910MW.
Verizon’s seven new renewable energy purchase agreements (REPAs) are expected to help finance the powering of seven new solar and wind facilities that are under development.
Four of the seven are with Leeward Renewable Energy for up to 640MW of anticipated renewable energy capacity and all have a 15-year term.
The projects include a facility in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) regional market that is expected to be fully operational in late 2023, two facilities in the Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM) Interconnection regional market that are expected to be fully operational in late 2023 and a facility in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) regional market that is expected to be fully operational in mid-2024.
The rest of the capacity is accounted for by a 15-year REPA with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions for an aggregate of 180MW of capacity and two 15-year REPAs with Lightsource BP for an aggregate of 89.9MW of capacity.
The Duke facility is located in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) regional market and is expected to be fully operational in late 2022.
Two Lightsource BP solar plants are both located in the PJM Interconnection regional market and are expected to be fully operational by late 2023.
The seven new agreements bring the cumulative number of REPAs, signed since December 2019, to 20, and the cumulative aggregate amount of contracted renewable energy capacity to approximately 2.6GW.
These new agreements will be funded by Verizon’s third $1bn green bond, issued in September 2021.