Market demand remains strong, with growing interest in clean firm options
 including nuclear and geothermal

The Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) today celebrated a significant milestone as corporate and industrial customers in 2024 surpassed 100 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy procurement since 2014. Energy customers announced 21.7 GW in voluntary procurement deals last year alone, making 2024 the highest year to date, according to CEBA’s 2024 Deal Tracker released today.

The 100 GW is bigger than any individual U.S. state’s peak electricity demand and is equivalent to 41 percent of all clean energy added to the U.S. grid since 2014. For perspective, a single gigawatt is enough to power more than 750,000 households for a year. More than 2.8% of all generation on the U.S. grid can be attributed to energy customer commitments.

“Market demand for clean energy remains strong among corporate and institutional energy customers, and CEBA’s members are firm in their commitment to advancing low-cost, reliable, carbon emissions-free global electricity systems,” said CEBA CEO Rich Powell. “As electricity demand continues to grow, our members also are pursuing innovative ways to add more clean, firm resources to the grid, to ensure they can power their operations and help grow our nation’s economy with carbon emissions-free energy.”

Given the growth in procurement, the percentage of clean energy added to the grid will increase in the months and years ahead as more projects come online, though interconnection and queue delays continue to slow projects’ completion. Customer interest in procuring clean energy is robust, despite the interconnection queue delays and a general upward trend in power purchase agreement (PPA) pricing for solar and wind across the United States.

Of the 21.7 GW procured last year, solar energy comprised 73 percent of capacity, followed by wind at 11 percent, and battery storage increased to 7.7 percent of capacity contracted in the last year. Nuclear energy procurement accounted for 1.5 GW, constituting 6.7 percent of capacity announced, and a 115 megawatt geothermal transaction (0.5 percent of contracted capacity last year) also signaled energy customers’ increasing interest in clean, firm generation resources.

Nearly 80 percent of contracted capacity in 2024 where the procurement method was disclosed occurred through PPAs, with utility and tax equity arrangements accounting for the remainder. Since 2014, 235 corporate and institutional customers have transacted to procure clean energy.