Google, Facebook, General Motors and Walmart, along with more than 300 other companies, have launched the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) — the largest group of corporate renewable energy buyers in the United States. By working to unlock the marketplace for organizations to buy renewable energy, REBA hopes to bring more than 60 gigawatts (GW) of new renewables online in the United States by 2025.
With offices in Washington, D.C., and Boulder, Colo., the new association will function as a membership organization spanning diverse industries and business types, and whose leadership circle alone represents annual revenues of $1 trillion, millions of jobs, and more than 1 percent of U.S. annual electricity consumption (48 terawatt-hours).
REBA’s vision of tomorrow’s energy marketplace is simple and powerful: a resilient, carbon-free energy system where every organization has an easy and cost-effective path to buying renewable energy.
Achieving this will require removing barriers that restrict access to clean energy. In many parts of the United States, the electricity system functions largely the same way it did 75 years ago. In the decades since, clean energy costs have come down and consumer preferences have evolved. Price is no longer the barrier — to the contrary, historic cost declines mean that renewable energy has increasingly become the most cost-effective resource available. Today it is lack of access to purchase these resources that is holding us back.
Unlocking access to corporate renewable procurement is an important step in efforts to combat climate change. Commercial and industrial energy users were responsible for more than 2 billion tons of greenhouse gases from energy use in 2018. Mitigating those emissions is part of the reason why more than 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies have set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets or renewable energy purchasing goals. Buying renewable energy is not only a core component of companies’ strategy to reduce their impact on the climate, it also makes good business sense. This successful collaboration has allowed the REBA community to grow to more than 200 large energy buyers and more than 150 clean energy developers and service providers.
Building on the Buyers Principles and Future of Internet Power programs, participants in the REBA community have been a part of 98 percent of all large-scale U.S. corporate renewable energy deals to date.
“We commend REBA and its members for their advocacy of policy solutions that seek to create more accessible pathways for consumers of all sizes to buy renewable energy,” said Steve Chriss, director of energy services at Walmart. “These efforts will play a critically important role in pursuit of meeting the 60 gigawatt goal that REBA members have set.”