A report released Wednesday by American Clean Power found that corporations in the U.S.purchased a record 20 GW of clean energy in 2022 compared to 15 GW in 2021, with the technology sector the biggest buyer.
ACP said the sector accounted for 48% of clean energy purchases by companies in 2022. Amazon now leads tech purchasers, with Meta in second place and Google in third.
Amazon has procured more than 12.4 GW since the company began purchasing clean energy in 2015, accounting for 34% of the total domestic capacity procured by tech companies and making it the top corporate purchaser in 2022. The company has pledged to use 100% clean energy by 2030.
“Even as power purchase agreement prices increased, corporations purchased nearly 20 GW of clean energy in 2022, more than 4 GW higher than any previous year,” ACP said in a release.
So far, corporate buyers have contracted 77 GW of clean power from utility-scale projects, the group said.
ACP’s interim CEO JC Sandberg said pressure on corporations to meet sustainability targets, in addition to 71% and 47% cost decreases for solar and wind, respectively, “have led to a 100-times increase in corporate clean power procurement over the past decade.”
“Even traditional oil and gas companies now recognize the value of clean energy for their operations, making the energy sector the second-largest industry for clean power purchases,” he said.
The energy industry has purchased nearly 6.7 GW of clean energy so far, and 60% of that has been purchased by traditional oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell, said ACP’s report.
ACP said that increased availability of hybrid solar and storage projects has also been responsible for corporate purchases of solar soaring over the past two years.
“Online solar-plus-storage capacity has nearly quadrupled over the past five years and the list of solar-plus-storage projects in the pipeline swells,” it said.
