Corporate PPA news

NEWS | 12 Aug 2021

Australia’s local government sector continues to demonstrate action with close to 80 councils (representing approximately 15% of the sector) having signed PPAs for renewable energy.  Victorian Energy Collaboration Organisation (VECO) recently announced the largest local government emissions reduction partnership in Australia to date.  Red Energy will provide 240 GWh of electricity per year to the 46 participating councils over a period of 9.5 years. VECO is a ground-breaking group project that will reduce each of the participating council’s energy bills (up to 35% based on current cost) and reduce electricity prices by using clean renewable energy generated in Victoria.

Another sector continuing to make strides is Higher Education. Victoria University becomes the 17th university to have signed a renewable PPA and will procure 100% renewable electricity from Iberdrola Australia’s Cherry Tree wind farm in Victoria.

Telstra has achieved a trifecta having now secured PPAs in Queensland, Victoria and NSW. This latest is their biggest PPA and will see a new 58MW wind farm built near Goulburn in New South Wales. As one of the biggest energy users in Australia, they are well on the way to achieving their goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025 and join TPG 

AMP Capital has signed a seven-year renewable PPA with Diamond Energy linked to solar farms in central NSW. They are joined by another of Australia’s leading green building owners ISPT who announced their second PPA in July with Bodangora wind farm in NSW to power properties in NSW and ACT.

The race to the top amongst Australia’s major supermarket chains has continued with Woolworths Group recently announcing the signing of a 10-year PPA with new wind farm Bango in NSW. The agreement will cover a third of the group’s energy needs in NSW. Coles and Aldi have previously announced deals with Aldi having now reached 100% renewables.

A word on additionality…

Last year Amazon announced two PPAs with NSW Solar Farms, the 150 MW Suntop Solar Farm and 146 MW (DC) / 110 MW (AC) Gunnedah Solar Farm. Both solar farms are owned and being developed by BRC-A founding member, Canadian Solar. More on Suntop Solar Farm Deal and Gunnedah Solar Farm Deal. PPAs like this provide revenue certainty to solar and wind projects, enabling them to get finance and move into construction. Deals like these show the power of PPAs achieving additionality, supporting investment in new solar and wind and playing a role in more rapidly decarbonising our grid. Particularly in this case where partial PPAs by Amazon were enough for the projects to achieve finance.