RMI Case Study Showcases Successful Aggregation of Corporate Renewable Energy Demand

The report details how four major corporate renewable energy buyers came together to successfully aggregate demand and jointly sign multiple wind power PPAs in Europe

Boulder, CO— December 7, 2017 –Today, Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI’s) Business Renewables Center released a new case study to showcase a unique partnership between four companies—AkzoNobel, DSM, Google and Philips—to jointly negotiate power purchase agreements (PPAs) with wind projects in the Netherlands.

The consortium has signed two PPAs to date, one in October 2016 for the 102 megawatt Krammer Wind Park project and the other in December 2016 for the 34 MW Bouwdokken Wind Park project.

“We at the Business Renewables Center applaud AkzoNobel, DSM, Google and Philips for achieving an early success in aggregated renewable energy purchasing,” said Roberto Zanchi, senior associate at Rocky Mountain Institute and lead author of the case study. “We feel strongly that aggregation can be a winning strategy for corporate renewable energy buyers, and this model shows that it is indeed possible to align across business motives, priorities and operational teams to get to yes on a PPA.”

The Dutch Wind Consortium’s deals are among the earliest examples of aggregated corporate demand successfully transacting in clean energy markets. Other examples include a three-party deal completed in Massachusetts in October 2016 and a 2014 solar deal between George Washington University, American University and George Washington University Hospital.

The Business Renewable Center’s case study details several key elements of the deal including: the consortium partners and their sustainability commitments, the benefits and challenges of the consortium model for buying renewable energy, the consortium aggregation process, the PPA structure of the consortium’s deals, a summary of lessons learned, and an overview of the Dutch market.

“Meeting our goals to be carbon neutral by 2050 and achieve 45 percent renewable energy by 2020 are of significant importance to our company,” said Marcel Galjee, energy director at AkzoNobel. “Selecting the right partners to jointly undertake this challenge was critical, and we are very pleased to be able to work with companies who are also committed to fostering a corporate culture of sustainability.”

“Shared leadership turned out to be a key part of the consortium’s ability to reach a mutually beneficial deal,” said Sim van der Linde, ‎project director of renewable energy at DSM. “It was important to us that the other partners were equally committed to closing a PPA, and we’re very happy to be able to advance toward our goal of 50 percent purchased renewable electricity by 2025 with these deals.”

“This year, Google is reaching 100 percent renewable energy for our global operations,” said Marc Oman, ‎EU energy lead, Google Global Infrastructure. “Success with this consortium played a meaningful part in our worldwide renewable plans, and as a company, we are looking forward to continuing to push innovation for corporate renewable energy procurement.”

“As a sustainable health technology company, a healthy planet is central to our mission to improve people’s lives. Renewables are helping us in our five-year plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2020 across all our operations,” said Simon Braaksma, senior director of group sustainability at Philips. “We were pleased to lead the accounting strategy for the consortium, and are eager to help educate other buyers on ways to effectively build a joint renewable energy procurement strategy.”

Download the report here: http://info.rmi.org/dutchcasestudy

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Rocky Mountain Institute
Nick Steel, Senior Media Associate
Tel: +1 347-574-0087
Email: nsteel@rmi.org

DSM
Andre van der Elsen
Email: Andre.Elsen-van-der@dsm.com

AkzoNobel
Andrew Wood
Andrew.wood@akzonobel.com

Google
Cindie Penders
Email: cpenders@google.com
Amy Atlas
Email: amyatlas@google.com

Philips
Ben Zwirs
ben.zwirs@philips.com