Google [GOOG:US] has inked a partnership with renewable transaction infrastructure provider LevelTen Energy to speed up the purchasing process for clean energy and help companies execute their decarbonization goals, as reported by ESG Today on March 21. LevelTen Energy has developed a faster and easier request for proposal (RFP) process for Power Purchase Agreements (PPA). Google stated that the new standardized solution could accelerate the negotiation and execution of clean energy PPAs by roughly 80%, facilitating the deployment of clean energy and broadening the market to new purchasers. The recent collaboration between the two firms aims to address some of the key issues that slow down and complicate the procurement of clean energy, primarily targeting the RFP negotiation process. 

LevelTen Energy’s optimized RFP process emerged as a result of enterprises’ growing interest in tapping PPA to offset their carbon footprints. Google purchased 7 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power via PPA from 2010 to 2021, making it the world’s fourth largest offtaker of renewable energy PPA in this period behind Amazon [AMZN:US], Microsoft [MSFT:US], and Meta [META:US]. Compared to traditional PPAs, which can take over a year to negotiate, the upgraded method has been used to complete clean energy contracting in just two months. The new method allows energy developers to flexibly customize the ways in which they offset risks and requires them to agree to those terms during proposal submission. It also enables sellers to monitor how their offers are evaluated in real-time, thus creating transparency and reducing the risk of entering into negotiations. 

Sources:

https://www.esgtoday.com/google-levelten-pilot-standardized-procurement-process-to-accelerate-clean-energy-purchase-agreements-by-80/

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/top-five-corporate-offtakers-of-renewable-energy-power-purchase-agreements-2010-2021

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/150-gw-later-dizzying-rise-power-purchase-agreement