British-based international solar developer Lightsource BP is launching Europe’s first raft of multi-buyer power purchasing agreements (PPAs) serving small and medium sized firms.
Half-owned since 2018 by fossil fuel giant BP, the London-headquartered developer is looking to a multi-buyer retail offering to fund a pipeline of new farms in Spain. Nick Boyle, pictured, lead Lightsource.
Its collective PPA framework has opened to aggregate the demand of firms with smaller than average electricity needs, but insisting on buying low carbon power. Such SMEs at present can face difficulties linked to their size in securing green power at volume.
The initiative, the first of its kind in Europe, draws on Lightsource’s experience in writing bespoke PPA contracts. Such expertise, the supplier asserts, effectively enables smaller customers’ need for protection against price volatility at the same time as fulfilling ESG mandates and minimising their carbon footprints.
“This an exciting opportunity to spread the benefits of solar to a wider group of beneficiaries,” said Zosia Riesner, Director of Power Markets, Lightsource bp.
“We’ve seen some of the world’s largest businesses using PPAs to benefit from the affordable and predictable pricing of renewables while supporting the energy transition’s continuing momentum. Our collective PPA approach can share those benefits to companies with far lower energy usage while enjoying the scale delivered by a solar portfolio from our 1GW pipeline in late stage of development in Spain.”
Last month the developer-retailer signed its first collective power purchase agreement, what it calls a virtual PPA, with the Fashion Pact, a collective of clothing brands seeking to advance ecological sustainability in their industry. That deal is to be sourced from its existing farms in Spain.
At the time Eva von Alvensleben, secretary general of the fashion collective commented, “Our unique model with strong CEO leadership has allowed brands to move forward together quickly. This has been critical to ensuring the success of this collective virtual power purchase agreement, a first for the industry. Collaboration is key to accelerate the transition of the fashion industry to renewable energy towards a net-zero future,” said.
Lightsource bp says it is currently progressing more than 10GW of utility-scale solar projects at different stages of development across Europe.
