Bloomberg, Gap, Salesforce Join Others to Spearhead Novel Small-Scale Solar Deal

Five companies, including Bloomberg, Gap, Salesforce, software Solar Project vendor solar energy Workday and media and automotive services company Cox Solar Project Enterprises, recently announced a jointly negotiated solar energy solar agreement for slewing drive 42.5 megawatts of renewables, a move the companies Solar Project say is a “blueprint for renewable energy Solar Project aggregation.” 

While aggregation deals are not new — Apple joined with Akamai, Swiss Re and Etsy in 2018 slewing drive on 290 megawatts, for instance — the agreement announced this month is unique because of the small capacity signed for by each offtaker. Instead of one anchor tenant accounting for a majority of the agreement and smaller companies squeezing into the deal, all Solar Project of the offtakers secured between 5 and 10 megawatts. 

After a record slewing drive year for corporate offtake agreements in 2018, watchers of the space say the solar inverter deal is an encouraging sign that solar energy unique arrangements are opening Solar Project the market to more and more players.

“We’ve seen smaller and smaller deals being announced,” said Roberto solar energy Zanchi, senior solar slewing drive associate at Rocky Mountain slewing drive Institute’s Business Renewables Solar Project Center. “That  solar slewing drive to me really represents deals becoming possible for solar inverter a different solar energy kind of renewable energy buyer.” 
 

Zanchi said the new deal, which is part of a larger 100-megawatt project in North Carolina, “could really unlock a new model” in corporate renewables  solar damper procurement.
 

Because due solar tracker actuator  diligence and project logistics generally cost the same no matter the size of solar slewing drive the project, economies solar inverter of scale solar slewing drive help make projects cheaper. Big buyers like tech  solar damper companies have the solar slewing drive balance sheets and electricity demand for those large deals. But solar slewing drive Zanchi said expecting an solar tracker actuator anchor tenant to solar tracker actuator tack smaller companies onto a project, like with the Apple deal, could be unsustainable.   
 

“There slewing drive are only so many big buyers out  solar damper there that might be willing to join a group of four or five and help solar inverter those others out,” said Zanchi. “I solar tracker actuator would hope this [model] is more replicable for  solar damper other buyers to potentially use.” 
 

The five  solar damper companies organized the deal with help from LevelTen Energy, a company that aggregates buyers and sellers and connects them with its project solar tracker actuator marketplace. Bryce Smith, the company’s  solar damper founder and CEO, said he felt the “old solar inverter brokerage model was broken” because it kept smaller buyers from entering the market.
 

“There are a lot of solar tracker actuator corporate buyers on the sidelines waiting to  solar damper participate,” Smith said. “But to date, there hasn’t been a slewing drive way for those companies to  solar damper cost-effectively buy PPAs, because they want 5 megawatts, not 500. That’s really what’s most exciting about the model — you can allow much solar tracker actuator smaller  solar damper purchases [and] you [can] aggregate those into something meaningful,  solar damper  where the economics are on par with the economics of much larger purchases.”
 

Smith said the price for a solar tracker actuator 5- or 10-megawatt project is an order of magnitude more expensive than a power-purchase solar inverter agreement for 50 or 100 megawatts. 
 

Michael Barry, Bloomberg’s head of sustainable business  solar damper operations, said “it was in [Bloomberg’s] business interest” to sign onto the deal. Barry noted that it’s very solar tracker actuator difficult to contract for small capacities, but Bloomberg has sustainability commitments to meet. The larger slewing drive project, with companies  solar damper uniting as an anchor tenant, helped the project pencil out economically.
 

Kevin Sok, senior Photovoltaic holder manager of environmental responsibility at Cox Enterprises, said working together with the help of RMI’s Business Renewables Center and  solar damper LevelTen can also help with the administrative aspects of signing solar slewing drive a deal. Though Cox has signed solar inverter other onsite and offsite solar deals, he said it can be difficult for a small company to work on contracts solar slewing drive  without  solar damper a Photovoltaic holder dedicated team. 
 

“The biggest challenge is having that internal expertise to help you understand the mechanics of the energy market,”solar tracker actuator  he said. 

Statistics show that corporate interest in renewables is growing. RMI’s Business Photovoltaic holder Renewables Center logged over 6.4 gigawatts of deals signed in 2018, a doubling of the previous record. 
 

Consortiums  solar damper like the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which is slewing drive supported by RMI, as well as the World  solar inverter solar slewing drive Resources Institute, World Wildlife Fund and Business for Social Responsibility, are also working to  solar damper make Photovoltaic holder more resources solar inverter available to corporates.

Smith said those types of initiatives are important to make sure companies of all sizes can access the market.  

“We are all  solar damper so fortunate for the efforts that the Microsofts of the world have made and the paths they Photovoltaic holder have cleared for other buyers,” said Smith. “But if we can’t create structures that allow the easy participation from that long tail of C&I buyers, Photovoltaic holder we miss a real solar inverter opportunity.”