B2B energy markets can help offset emissions

Dear EarthTalk: What innovative ways are companies currently using to access renewable energy?

—Peter V., Milwaukee, WI

With energy production accounting for more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and more and more businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint, it stands to reason that a whole new generation of startups will emerge to help connect business customers with green energy producers.

One of these innovative green intermediaries is Copenhagen-based Reel Energy. Companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint can turn to Reel to provide them with green energy at fixed, low prices for five to 10 years. Reel, in turn, uses this financing to sign deals with solar and wind developers to launch new renewable energy projects. Reel has expanded strongly in Europe in recent years, but expect to see its offerings appear more and more in the U.S. and elsewhere in the future.

Another approach to B2B green energy sourcing is Seattle-based Drift Energy, which helps companies buy 100 percent green energy and thus offset other carbon emissions. Customers sign a contract to buy all the energy they need for one to five years, and Drift begins supplying them with green energy sourced from local wind farms, solar panels and hydroelectric dams. By helping to take the guesswork out of green energy sourcing, Drift is able to help other companies do the right thing and reap the benefits of reducing emissions and PR in the process.

Meanwhile, Nashville, Tennessee-based Clearloop is taking a similar approach, matching companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint with new sources of green energy. But Clearloop’s version emphasizes environmental justice, using customer financing to start building solar panels in traditionally disenfranchised and overly polluted communities in the American South. Clearloop has so far funded solar projects in Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Another green energy matchmaker model is LevelTen Energy, also based in Seattle, which operates the world’s largest marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of green energy. LevelTen’s marketplace lets buyers compare options, receive personalized quotes, and reduce risk through automated analysis of market price quotes. By reducing investment risk and expanding access to green energy, LevelTen streamlines the renewable energy purchasing process. To date, LevelTen’s transaction infrastructure has helped broker about 4,500 renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs), financing more than 1,800 wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects in 28 different countries.

Another way for companies to get green energy at fixed prices and reduce their carbon footprint is to group-buy renewable energy certificates (RECs) through Evergreen Renewables. RECs provide proof that one megawatt-hour of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source. A recent deal organized by Evergreen and its marketplace involved eight brands buying enough RECs to fund the retrofit of a 55-megawatt wind farm in Texas that otherwise would have been demolished. These types of deals allow even smaller companies to participate in large group purchases of RECs, further expanding access to green energy.