Saturday 8 June 2019

Starbucks procures 146MW renewable portfolio with a difference

LevelTen Energy and Starbucks have signed a three-project deal which will see clean power provided to more than 3,000 of the chain's stores.

The 146MW portfolio includes wind and solar farms in North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas - the deal is unusual in that it will see energy aggregated from three separate projects from three distinct developers.

The portfolio is custom-built for Starbucks using LevelTen Energy’s technology-enabled procurement platform, which it says allow new business models to democratise the "historically opaque" process of buying renewable energy.

The model allows a corporate buyer to simultaneously procure a fraction of the power generated by multiple energy projects, rather than tying one corporate buyer to one energy project and limiting the number of potential participants.

Patrick Leonard, Energy Manager at Starbucks, said: "As we continue to strive towards building and operating the world’s largest green retail business, we know we need to find innovative business models to achieve our renewable energy goals.

"Not only does this portfolio model allow us to support new solar and wind farms that will deliver the clean energy equivalent to the electricity powering over 3,000 stores, it also opens the door for many new buyers to cost-effectively source smaller amounts of renewable energy."