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Category: Blog

  • Advocacy Updates
  • 07 December 2023

Upcoming FERC Rule Opens Historic Opportunity for Systemic Transmission Reform

By Tim Aiken and Bryn Baker


The transmission system is the backbone of the U.S. electricity grid, and increasing transmission capacity nationwide is key in enabling corporate and institutional customers to meet their clean energy goals and expand their operations where and how they would like. Without reforms in how we plan, permit, and pay for new transmission, customers will fall short of their goals, and the nation will lack a modern, clean, affordable, and reliable grid that helps enable innovation and build our economy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the year ahead has an important opportunity to develop the kind of systemic transmission reforms we need. Pending final action and approval before the commission is a Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation Rule that provides a historic opportunity to remedy past planning rule deficiencies and set this nation on the course to an interconnected and resilient electric grid capable of meeting the demands and challenges for the coming decades.

Current Context

More than 70% of the nation’s transmission and power transformers are over 25 years old and in many cases have exceeded their original design life. Few new major lines are being built, and those in the pipeline average a 10- to 12-year permit approval process before construction can begin.

The gap between our transmission needs and existing capacity continues to grow. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Transmission Needs Study concluded that under a needs assessment forecasting moderate load and high clean energy growth due to the incentives and other provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), regional transmission capacity must increase by 64% and interregional transmission must grow by 114% by 2035.

A 2022 analysis by Princeton University’s ZERO Lab found that without doubling the current pace of new transmission capacity, more than 80% of the IRA’s emission reductions would be unrealized. The study also found that without the added reliability benefits of interregional transmission, developing a clean energy grid would be far more expensive for customers.

Congressional action on permitting reform that includes strong reforms to speed transmission development has stalled ahead of an election year in 2024. Congress this past summer enacted a modest set of permitting reforms as part of the Debt Ceiling deal, but the deal’s sole provision on transmission, an up to three-year study on how regions could share electricity during periods of peak demand, does not adequately advance needed reform.

The deal diminished further congressional interest in comprehensive reforms. Democrats worry that the Republican price of altering landmark environmental laws in exchange for transmission reforms is too high, and Republicans worry that new transmission could accelerate the retirement of fossil fuel generation by adding predominantly clean generation. Bipartisan discussions around various transmission-related provisions continue, and the lame duck session after the November 2024 general election offers the next most likely window of opportunity to enact legislative reforms.

Meanwhile, the Energy Department this year began using its authorities under Section 216(h) of the Energy Policy Act to expedite federal reviews for transmission projects. A joint memorandum of understanding across multiple agencies was signed to designate DOE as the lead agency for transmission to streamline the National Environmental Protection Act review process and set enforceable deadlines.

DOE also raced to implement transmission-related provisions in both the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, through more than $20 billion in grants and loans to improve the electric grid. Collectively, these administrative actions will shave years off the federal review process and lower costs. But alone, executive action cannot overcome all the obstacles to planning, permitting, and paying for new transmission. 

Opportunity at FERC

FERC now has an important opportunity to make systemic transmission planning and cost allocation reforms. A strong planning rule that requires transmission planning authorities to standardize the process for planning and paying for new transmission could remove the single largest impediment to building new major transmission lines.

In April 2022, FERC released a proposed rule that addresses some aspects needed for transmission reform. However, that rule does not fully solve hurdles in how to pay for regional lines that are needed. These larger lines help reduce customer costs and improve reliability, especially during extreme weather, while also facilitating the integration of clean energy to the grid and its ability to accommodate growing loads.

The proposed draft planning rule would advance holistic transmission planning by requiring public utility transmission providers to develop long-term regional transmission plans that look at least 20 years into the future, and to update those plans every three years. Plans would also have to include multiple scenarios that use different assumptions, including extreme weather, corporate demand for clean energy, and load growth.

Two areas of the proposed planning rule would need to be strengthened to address systemic changes to planning and paying for lines, particularly regional lines, that benefit customers. FERC would need to:

  • Require public utility transmission providers to consider a broad set of up to 12 economic and reliability transmission benefits when identifying efficient or cost-effective transmission facilities in the regional transmission planning process. Currently, the list is optional.
  • Require utilities to consider Grid Enhancing Technologies that increase grid efficiency and reduce customer costs.

Under the 2-2 divided political party composition of FERC, the commission has not been able to move the planning rule forward. Commissioner James Danly, a Republican, must step down when his term expires at the end of December 2023, leaving a 2-1 commission that could move major rules forward.

CEBA encourages members to engage with us in supporting this FERC rule. The planning rule could advance in early 2024 and provides a significant opportunity to enable the transmission development customers need and to help modernize our grid to meet growing electricity demand and weather stresses on reliability, while providing improved access to low-cost, clean energy.

For more information on how transmission expansion benefits energy customers, read our issue brief.

  • Advocacy Updates
  • 22 November 2023

CEBA Comments to SBTI Emphasize Role of Market Certificates in Grid Decarbonization

By Kerri Metz and Priya Barua

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in September issued a Call for Evidence on the Effectiveness of the Use of Environmental Attribute Certificates in Corporate Climate Targets, and the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) this week submitted a response that demonstrates the crucial role that market certificates have played in grid decarbonization and addressing supply chain emissions.

SBTi states that its aim in this call for evidence is to “help the corporate climate action ecosystem understand whether different instruments can credibly drive decarbonization and support corporate emission reduction claims.” CEBA encourages its members and any other interested organization to respond to this call for evidence before SBTi’s November 24 deadline.

Over the past decade, an increasing number of companies have voluntarily set clean energy commitments and taken steps to address climate change as part of their business strategy. Nearly one-third of the world’s 2,000 largest publicly traded companies have published net-zero emissions targets, and more than 90% of S&P 500 companies now publish environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports.

SBTi, a partnership between the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund, works with various organizations to set science-based targets that are in line with Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Through collaboration with SBTi, approximately 3,900 companies have committed to setting science-based targets, and 2,590 have set net-zero commitments.  

SBTi’s call for evidence encompasses all environmental attribute certificates, including energy attributes certificates (EACs) for electricity, energy carrier certificates for green hydrogen, green gas, sustainable aviation fuel certificates, emissions reduction credits, and certified commodities conveying specific emission factors, including green steel.

CEBA recognizes the significance of EACs in the global voluntary market and their crucial role as a key tool for corporate climate action. Currently, EACs are the only uniform and global market-based instrument available to companies trying to reduce their corporate greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to their environmental impact, the revenue from selling EACs for clean energy asset developers stimulates climate finance, mitigating market risks for developers and owners. EACs also help advance the adoption of low-carbon technologies, giving corporations the opportunity to displace high-emitting activities with lower-emission alternatives.  

Since 2014, energy customers have voluntarily procured more than 71 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy in the United States alone, equivalent to 42% of all wind and solar capacity added to the nation’s grid during that timeframe. In 2022, energy customers announced a record-breaking 16.9 gigawatts of new clean energy deals, equivalent to 70% of the carbon-free energy (CFE) capacity added to the grid last year. It’s important to help SBTi understand the impact of that customer procurement.

CEBA’s submission to SBTi’s call focuses on:

  • The role of energy attribute certificates: EACs have played a pivotal role in driving corporate CFE investment and deployment by providing corporations with a transparent and uniform means of procuring CFE and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. EACs can also evolve and be improved to activate the next generation of procurement and drive greater and more targeted emissions reductions.
  • Addressing supply chain and Scope 3 emissions: EACs are a valuable and potentially game-changing tool for tackling supply chain and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions can account for 65-95% of an organization’s total emissions, and EACs provide a crucial avenue for corporations to confront this significant portion of their supply chain emissions. In the absence of EACs, corporations and supply chain partners would have limited to no options for addressing Scope 3 and supply chain emissions in many global markets, and without a clear and accessible path for achievement, corporations might abandon setting supply chain decarbonization goals altogether.

SBTi is accepting the following types of evidence: 

  • empirical data and research studies,
  • reports and white papers,
  • statistical information,
  • case studies and examples,
  • surveys and polls, and
  • legal and regulatory analysis.

To support other organizations in submitting comments to SBTi, CEBA has shared a resource list that we used to inform our submission to SBTi. These resources highlight the effectiveness of EACs in meeting corporate climate targets.

CEBA is hard at work to advocate for policies that support and advance voluntary markets and to equip our members with the information and tools needed to demonstrate impact in driving clean energy procurement. By submitting responses to SBTi, organizations can help shape the types of market instruments that count toward achieving climate targets. To learn more about CEBA’s SBTi submission, contact Kerri Metz at kmetz@cebuyers.org or Priya Barua at pbarua@cebuyers.org.

  • Advocacy Updates
  • 16 November 2023

CEO Update to Members on CEBA’s Support for Voluntary Corporate Action on Grid Decarbonization

By Kevin Hagen, Interim CEO of CEBA and CEBI

This has been an exciting year for the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, and together we are playing a crucial role in driving the clean energy transition and reducing carbon emissions in the electric power system. Energy customers have voluntarily procured more than 71 gigawatts of clean energy in the United States since 2014, and in 2022 alone, these procurement deals were equivalent to 70% of the carbon-free energy capacity added to the grid. At the same time, we also face a new and evolving accountability landscape, and the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) is hard at work to advocate for policies that support and advance voluntary markets and to equip our members with the information and tools needed to meet these new challenges.

These market evolutions include the ongoing process to update the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the FTC Green Guides as well as the recent California law requiring companies that operate in California and make more than $1 billion in annual revenues to report both their direct and indirect emissions. As early as January, large U.S. companies that raise money on European stock exchanges will have to begin compiling information about their climate risks, strategies, and emissions, to comply with European Union disclosure rules, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may finalize a narrower climate disclosure rule in the year ahead.

We support and welcome improvements to modernize the accounting, reporting, and recognition systems that capture the impact of voluntary action. These systems should:

  • Protect existing investments and contracts while increasing the accuracy and granularity of metrics,
  • Allow various approaches for achieving success, and
  • Open doors for innovative solutions to decarbonization.

As I noted in a recent Utility Dive op-ed, we recognize that to expand the market, increase the numbers of corporate and institutional customers buying clean energy, and maximize the benefits for all of us, we need collaborative engagement and partnership to improve emissions accounting and marketing associated with corporate and institutional energy procurement.

Here is an update on CEBA actions and recommendations we are making to support our members and community in this evolution:

  • Earlier this year, the Clean Energy Buyers Institute (CEBI) submitted recommendations to the organizations overseeing the Greenhouse Gas Protocol — World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) — that include adding locational and temporal data hierarchy to accounting provisions in the protocol. We also provided recommendations to the FTC that urge clarifying in the guides that energy customers should have high-quality, detailed data — in addition to the energy attribute certificates they own — to substantiate claims.
  • Last week, CEBA and CEBI signed a Clean Air Task Force letter with 15 other companies, academics, NGOs, and data providers, urging WRI and WBCSD leaders to improve location- and market-based reporting in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 2 Guidance and to add new and separate consequential impact accounting and reporting disclosures. As the letter notes, we are confident that including these three elements would best ensure the accuracy, effectiveness, and relevance of an updated Scope 2 Guidance.
  • We will be submitting a response next week to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in its Call for Evidence on the Effectiveness of the Use of Environmental Attribute Certificates in Corporate Climate Targets. In addition, we encourage all CEBA members to submit your own responses and let SBTi know it’s important to continue and enhance the use of the market-based certificates that underpin global voluntary markets and corporate climate action.

All these voluntary standards are global in scope, and we recognize that accountability demands for customers are international. As we step up momentum in these efforts, CEBA has also announced an opening for a new Director of Global Greenhouse Gas Accounting & Climate Recognition to lead these efforts. This position will support our aim to unlock $1 trillion in private investment for clean electricity projects this decade and accelerate the global clean energy transition. We’ve already had some wonderful candidates express interest, and if you know of someone who you think would be a good fit for the position, please share this with them right away.

Together, our energy customer community can continue to demonstrate the ingenuity and commitment you have already shown in pursuing and innovating for grid decarbonization. We will need to be clear and diligent in our accounting of our emissions reductions, and at the same time, our potential for global impact and motivating an international clean energy transition has never been greater. We at CEBA look forward to continuing to work with all of you and enable your great progress.

  • Blog
  • 22 September 2023
  • Matt Penfold, Co-founder and CCO of Verse

CEBA Member Highlight: Verse

What prompted your organization to join the CEBA community? 

Verse’s mission is to unlock the benefits of clean energy for organizations everywhere. We’re doing that by developing software that uses generative AI to make buying and managing clean energy faster, easier, and less expensive than it is today. CEBA’s work convening and supporting organizations interested in procuring clean power is a perfect fit for us. We’re excited to collaborate with CEBA to showcase the power of technology in accelerating and scaling corporate clean energy adoption. 

What does the future of clean energy look like for your organization? 

Verse’s vision of the future of clean energy is AI- and software-driven. The world is at an inflection point of AI-enabled solutions; we want to apply the capabilities of generative AI to clean power procurement.

Verse’s Aria software platform leverages this technology to help companies define their clean power goals, design the best portfolio to meet those goals, manage their clean energy assets, and verifiably report on their emissions and financial metrics. 

Recent policy changes, the evolution of various regulatory and voluntary frameworks, and the increasing complexity of energy markets and clean energy assets are quickly exceeding the analytical capabilities of humans and spreadsheets. Clean energy customers will increasingly require the computing power of AI to synthesize concepts and analyze potential scenarios to develop future-proofed clean power strategies.

What has been the most interesting clean energy project during your time with your organization?  

One exciting case study involved helping a company figure out what clean power procurement philosophy would best meet its needs. 

This customer wanted to power their operations with clean energy, but needed to answer several detailed questions before acting.

  • Location matching: Can we buy clean energy from anywhere in the country? Or from the same grid?​
  • Time matching: Should we match clean power on an annual basis? Monthly? Hourly?​
  • Emissions matching: How much greenhouse gas emissions will my clean energy purchase help avoid?

Using the Aria Goal Setting app the customer received nine possible procurement philosophies to analyze considering different permutations (e.g., 100% clean energy, carbon-matching, location-matching, and/or time-matching). 

Aria uses mathematical optimization, combined with pre-loaded, 20-year hourly market forecasts to evaluate the cost, emissions, and time-matching implications of the nine scenarios. 

The customer presented the outputs from Aria to their senior leadership team, which was then able to make a data-driven decision, selecting the procurement philosophy that best met their objectives while staying within budget for clean energy purchases. 

By defining their clean power goals, the customer was able to move forward with confidence in their clean energy journey and is now going to market to source clean energy. 

Envision a 90% carbon-free U.S. electricity system by 2030 – what is the next step toward a carbon-free energy future? 

It’s hard to pick just one! There are several critical steps that need to coalesce, including streamlining interconnection processes and expanding transmission and grid infrastructure. The step we’re focused on is making clean energy procurement faster, easier, and less expensive than it is today so more organizations can access the benefits of clean energy. We are confident we can leverage powerful emerging technologies — like generative AI — to demystify this complex field and make a real difference in how organizations source and manage their power. 

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Get Involved

Learn more about joining the CEBA community.

Pasha’s Take on CEBA Connect at VERGE 23

CEBA Connect at VERGE 23 will bring energy leaders together to address the challenges of the clean energy transition and build solutions for our carbon-free future. CEBA members — register for your all-access pass through InterConnect. We hope to see you in San Jose, California, October 23-26! 

This is part of a series on VERGE 23. In this edition we chat with Pasha Feinberg, CEBA Senior Associate of Global Programs.

photo of Pasha Feinberg giving thumbs up

What are you most excited to experience during CEBA Connect at VERGE 23? 

I am really excited to share the key drivers of the CEBA Global Initiative with our community. A number of our stakeholders will be there in-person — I am sure we will huddle up and solve EVERYTHING. Ok, not everything! Hopefully a lot though. One of our stakeholders has waxed poetic about a place called the Cheese Board, so I pretty excited about that too. 

I am also thrilled to share I will be co-leading a session this year on reducing global supply chain emissions, and more sessions on Asia-Pacific corporate clean energy markets are in development. We consistently hear from clean energy customers that supply chains in Asia-Pacific are where they need help outside the U.S., so it is a critical region for our focus. We are going to bring together a suite of experts from high interest markets to discuss challenges and solutions. We will have some highly interactive parts with breakout sessions, so people have direct access to learn from their peers. 

What is the most fun thing about VERGE? 

The best thing for me has been reconnecting with staff and CEBA members. We had a big staff dinner at a restaurant that REI and Nike happened to also be having dinner at, so we had one big, fun, clean energy nerd party. I was able to sit and laugh with many people over lunches, sitting outside enjoying the nice California weather. 

VERGE is a solutions-building event. Share some success stories! What have you brought out of VERGE that you’re now building on, and bringing to the clean energy market? 

Last year at VERGE 22, over tacos, we conceived our Global Initiative goals. Now, it has been formalized — although there was a lot less salsa while I was doing that work. We are moving ideas from concept to execution, and now we are figuring out how we can get buy-in on the scale needed to accelerate the energy transition. 

What was the best member moment of VERGE 22? 

After our session on clean energy in China, Tim Lee from The Walt Disney Company gave us such wonderful positive feedback on how the session was incredibly beneficial. We love compliments! It was really nice to hear that our sessions were immediately helpful. 

What makes CEBA Connect events special? 

CEBA sets the bar high for making sessions interactive with peer-to-peer learning. We get superstars in attendees and speakers — people are always impressed and complimentary. Members keep returning to our events because they know we carefully curate an excellent learning environment. Last year we also had the CEBA members-only lounge, which was a huge hit. You will definitely find me in the lounge again this year, that’s where the best snacks were.  

What is one thing you’d tell someone who has never attended VERGE? 

Our members are eager to meet each other, to talk with each other. Our community is made up of good people who are here to help you on your clean energy journey. You will see CEBA staff everywhere on the Energy Track, come up and say hi! We love to talk energy — and get to know you.  

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Become a member today to get access to exclusive content at VERGE 23. Join now.

  • Blog
  • 19 July 2023
  • Christopher Johnson, Corporate Partnerships at Seneca Environmental

CEBA Member Highlight: Seneca Environmental

Image caption: The Seneca Nation’s Allegany Solar Project, developed by Seneca Energy, a Seneca Environmental sister company.

Creating Unprecedented Collaboration to Address the Climate Crisis and Benefit Historically Underserved Communities

The climate crisis requires unprecedented collaboration. We see an opportunity for that collaboration amongst the clean energy sector, the corporate world, and tribally owned enterprises to bring Earth-healing solutions to scale, for the benefit of historically underserved communities and all future generations. Seneca Environmental is a renewable energy developer and climate consultancy that is wholly owned by the Seneca Nation. Our work to develop, own, and operate clean energy projects around the U.S. will produce long-term, sustainable revenue for the Nation. In addition, our approach to developing clean energy projects focuses on providing Earth-healing solutions, embedding climate justice, and doing the most good possible — goals that are thoroughly aligned with the Beyond the Megawatt principles of environmental sustainability, equity, and resilience.

Native communities in the U.S. have not shared in the wealth generated from their lands and the mainstream economy; they remain underserved compared to other communities. They experience high rates of poverty, low education levels, health disparities, and a lack of opportunities. To reverse this trend and support the health, education, and welfare of its members, the Seneca Nation built a robust business enterprise. The Seneca Holdings family of companies delivers more than $350 million in products and services annually. The profit from this business is helping to provide the same services to the Nation that most other U.S. citizens get from their federal, state, and local governments. But Native Nations do not have tax revenues to fund these services. The Seneca Nation recognized that expanding Seneca Holdings was key to fully meeting its members’ needs, and thus Seneca Environmental was born.

Seneca Environmental is supporting energy equity with clean energy projects nationwide that serve both Native communities and private-sector clients. With our extensive network of values-aligned partners and close collaboration with the Department of Energy, we can deliver projects at scale. Energy customers looking to reduce emissions and diversify their suppliers can partner with Seneca Environmental for onsite renewables paired with batteries for resilience, and long-term energy contracts, such as virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs). 

Our work with other Native communities focuses on enabling clean energy projects, which can provide them with energy sovereignty and generate income. Flipping the old, extractive model of energy generation, we focus on social justice and equitable benefits for Native people through access to clean energy and economic development, including workforce development and community benefits. We combine a deep appreciation of Native sovereignty with a flexible approach that prioritizes the needs and goals of each community we work with.

Partnership and collaboration are core to Seneca Environmental’s vision. Energy customers benefit by partnering with us because we can offer competitive pricing and satisfy e environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals for supplier diversification, while helping them achieve their climate goals. We are always looking to expand our partnerships with those aligned with our mission and our efforts to develop, build, acquire, and operate a portfolio of clean energy assets, while ensuring a positive impact on Seven Generations.

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Get Involved
Learn more about joining the CEBA community.

  • Blog
  • 13 July 2023
  • Doug Miller

Member Highlight: Energy Peace Partners

What prompted your organization to join the CEBA community?

Energy Peace Partners (EPP) is a nonprofit organization that develops innovative climate and finance solutions to promote greater resilience and peace in fragile, climate vulnerable, and energy poor countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. EPP is excited to join the CEBA community in order to be part of the premier clean energy industry association. EPP developed the “Peace Renewable Energy Credit” (P-REC), which provides energy customers a new procurement solution to maximize the decarbonization and positive human impact for every megawatt-hour of renewable energy they procure globally.

EPP is excited to join the CEBA community. Membership will allow us to introduce new partners to our work, including the unique opportunities we are providing for customers to achieve their goals for purpose-driven, next generation procurement. 

The P-REC is a quality label affixed to qualifying I-RECs from high-impact renewable energy projects in fragile, energy poor countries. P-RECs deliver critical additional revenue for high impact projects. This revenue helps developers to partially finance new renewable energy generation assets and/or fund projects with shared community benefits like public street lighting and hospital solar electrification.

Figure 1: Map of the target countries for P-REC projects

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to clean energy procurement?

We know that customers want procurement solutions that can advance diverse impact-related goals. These impacts range from delivering additional community benefits and reducing value chain electricity use-related emissions to optimizing for avoided emissions impact and supporting new renewable energy projects. However, customers are often unfamiliar with high-impact offerings like P-RECs. This is why we are excited to participate with fellow CEBA members in various programs and initiatives, such as the Beyond the Megawatt and Next Generation Carbon-free Electricity initiatives. 

What does the future of clean energy look like for your organization?

The P-REC is a powerful market instrument for customers to incorporate into their procurement strategy because it is an I-REC with unique social impact-related benefits, such as first-time electrification and greater economic and peacebuilding opportunities. 

EPP envisions a future where a large customer community makes P-RECs part of their global procurement strategy to expand carbon-free electricity access everywhere, including climate-vulnerable countries that are most at-risk of conflict. To support this effort, we are launching the buyer-supported P-REC Aggregation Facility (PAF) in the coming year to unlock $90 million in new renewable energy capacity in 11 fragile states in sub-Saharan Africa.  

In addition, EPP supports the expansion of I-REC market access in a growing number of our target countries and is the authorized International Renewable Energy Certificate (I-REC) issuer in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Ethiopia, and Haiti. 

Figure 2: Overview about how P-RECs work and deliver high-impact renewable energy projects

What is the most interesting clean energy project you worked on during your time with the organization?

Luckily, the P-REC isn’t just a theoretical solution. The first examples of customer P-REC transactions include:

These purchases expanded renewable energy access in communities in the DRC and South Sudan, along with improved safety and security, increased livelihood opportunities, and improved public health services. Early research also indicates that there is an increase in overall levels of positive peace in these communities.

Envision a 90% carbon-free U.S. electricity system by 2030– what is the next step towards a carbon-free energy future?

EPP has observed five markets trends that are shaping clean energy markets and procurement decisions, including: 

  • Purpose-driven procurement, where P-RECs support new projects that create (carbon-free) electricity access in fragile countries as well as deliver co-benefits that provide the building blocks for greater peace and resilience;
  • Value chain decarbonization, where P-RECs provide a solution to cover the electricity use associated with global value chains, where customers can procure P-RECs in the countries that overlap with their suppliers and/or customers based on value chain partners’ electricity use;
  • Avoided emissions optimization, where P-RECs enable communities to reduce or leapfrog over reliance on diesel, coal, and charcoal, resulting in significant avoided emissions potential to customers;
  • Purchaser-enabled procurement, where P-RECs enable customers to provide catalytic funding for new distributed mini-grids and/or community projects like street lighting or hospital solar electrification, where all P-RECs provide proof of customers’ financial support; and
  • Climate-related disclosure regulation management, where ​​P-RECs offer a market instrument that shows a given customer procured a carbon-free megawatt-hour along with verifiable community benefits that can be applied to emission reduction and social impact claims in disclosures about its direct operations and global value chains.

We look forward to increasing awareness among the CEBA community about how the P-REC supports these emerging customer priorities.

 —

Get Involved
Learn more about joining the CEBA community.

  • Blog
  • 26 June 2023
  • Erin Craig Vice President, Customer Solutions & Innovation

Member Highlight: 3Degrees’ Actions on Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement

Why did your organization get involved with the Beyond the Megawatt initiative?

The Beyond the Megawatt initiative is perfectly aligned with our internal compass – we’ve been working with clients to bring sustainability writ large into their energy procurements over a decade, including our earliest work on PPAs.

3Degrees views this initiative as an opportunity to join other industry stakeholders to amplify a set of thoughtfully agreed purpose-driven procurement practices, broadening their reach and making them more commonplace. We fully embrace this work, and collaboration across the industry is essential to building its success; CEBI has done an amazing job orchestrating the collaboration and curating its final result.

What impact will the Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement have on the clean energy industry?

Some organizations, including many of our clients, are already leading the way and embracing purpose-driven energy procurement; however, many others seek guidance to understand how to incorporate such best practices into their work. These principles serve both market leaders and newer market entrants by providing a framework of aspirational considerations to help maximize clean energy procurement benefits. We hope this initiative brings these important topics to the forefront so more organizations see how resilience, sustainability, and social considerations can become essential components of a procurement process. Ultimately, we hope the principles will create a new “base case” for positive renewable energy development.

How do the principles influence the broader transition to clean energy?

Many corporations join the energy transition from the sustainability lens; they seek to create a world where their business and all its stakeholders can prosper. Clean energy development is still development, and involves land use, technology, and economic decisions by many stakeholders. We believe these principles – and the climate leadership from those who are signing on – create a compelling statement of intent, asserting that generating clean energy is simply not enough to effect a sustainable energy transition. This will provide a path for companies just entering the space, broadening the lens about buyers using their collective power to drive change. Not all corporate buyers will automatically adopt these principles overnight and it may be difficult to understand how to apply these ideas in practice. Guidance and documentation provided by respected groups like CEBA, coupled with valid case studies from respected companies, will help spur action among companies.

How will you consider the principles during your clean energy procurement process?

3Degrees supports a range of customers with their clean energy and carbon reduction strategies. The Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement and its signatories provide a hugely helpful benchmark for companies who may be hesitant to adopt “non-standard” procurement criteria; it gives us support when we recommend a broader view of these important procurement decisions.

While many elements of these principles have long had a place among the factors we consider in these engagements, we recently documented a social mission that explicitly states our goal of pursuing the principles of a just transition through our work, which goes hand in hand with our commitment to the Beyond the Megawatt initiative.

Interviewee: Erin Craig, Vice President, Customer Solutions & Innovation, 3Degrees

  • Blog
  • 14 June 2023
  • Rob Hamilton, Director, Corporate Communications, Silicon Ranch

Member Highlight: Silicon Ranch’s Actions on Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement

Pictured above are grazing sheep at Silicon Ranch’s Snipesville II Solar Farm—which serves Meta’s operations in the state of Georgia—as part of the company’s Regenerative Energy® platform. Silicon Ranch’s transformative Regenerative Energy model is a holistic approach to land management that co-locates renewable energy production with regenerative agriculture practices.

Why did your organization get involved with the Beyond the Megawatt initiative?

Silicon Ranch was founded on the understanding that when carried out responsibly, solar projects can create enduring, long-term value and deliver a meaningful legacy to the communities in which they are located. As the long-term landowner and project operator in every community we serve, we know how important it is to be good neighbors, stewards of the land, and collaborative partners.

The Beyond the Megawatt initiative directly aligns with our founding principles to raise the industry standard for the impact solar projects can have on American communities. Helping craft the Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement enabled us to offer our expertise gained over more than a decade of developing solar projects that our neighbors are proud to have in their community. We’ve done this at scale across the United States and have valuable insights to share about how the entire industry can take tangible action to improve operations, community relationships, and the overall reputation of renewable energy nationwide.

What impact will the Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement have on the clean energy industry?

Responsibly developed solar projects have the potential to not only provide cost-effective, reliable, renewable energy, but also to promote long-term positive economic, environmental, and social impacts on American communities. These guiding principles provide a roadmap for leaders across the renewable energy sector to maximize that potential impact and make a tangible difference.

How do the principles influence the broader transition to clean energy?

It matters how energy projects are developed, owned, and operated. By following these principles, key stakeholders can help raise the bar for our industry to better ensure that solar is able to exceed expectations of what an energy project can be through responsible project design, development, and management.

The Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement also empower decision-makers to collaborate with communities to define the long-term social, economic, and health benefits that matter most to citizens. The more leaders we can get to commit to these principles, the more we will build a great reputation for the renewable energy industry and earn the trust of communities that we need in order to develop projects where they live.

Ultimately it is our hope that these principles will help our industry uphold, and even exceed, its ambitious goals.

How will you consider the principles during your clean energy procurement process?

Silicon Ranch has historically followed the vast majority of these principles during our development and management processes, and we will continue to do so.

We will continue to expand our Regenerative Energy platform, which is our holistic approach to designing, building, and operating our projects in alignment with natural systems to regenerate soil health, biodiversity, water quality, and habitat.

Our company will continue developing and building partnerships with suppliers supporting domestic manufacturing such as the partnerships we have established with Nextracker, First Solar, and SOLARCYCLE which are helping us maintain our unblemished track record, and ultimately supporting energy resiliency.

We will also continue to listen and respond to, and collaborate with, the communities where we site our solar projects and locate new solar projects in American communities where the greatest economic and environmental benefits can be achieved, as we are doing with Clearloop, our subsidiary which creates carbon solutions for organizations of all sizes, from global corporations to small businesses and educational institutions. And we will share the Principles for Purpose-Driven Energy Procurement with our partners and customers to spread the word and get more industry leaders to commit to these actionable considerations that enable a better future for all of us by making solar do more.

Interviewee: Rob Hamilton, Director, Corporate Communications, Silicon Ranch

  • Blog
  • 07 June 2023
  • Julianne Basinger

Five Customers, Five Questions: Perspectives on Greenhouse Gas Accounting

Discussions about greenhouse gas accounting all too often overlook the tremendous role of energy customers in driving grid decarbonization investments and the efforts of the people who make that clean energy procurement happen. The Clean Energy Buyers Institute has interviewed five energy professionals and asked five questions, to reveal insights and real stories about their hard work to advance the carbon-free energy transition. Customer perspectives are important for broader industry dialogues, particularly as World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development update the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Our fifth and final interview is with Jay Creech, renewable energy manager at REI Co-op. In previous weeks, we interviewed Kelly Snyder, senior director of origination with EDP Renewables North America; John D. Powers, Schneider Electric’s vice president of global renewables and clean tech; Jeannie Renné-Malone, vice president of global sustainability with VF Corporation; and Monica Walker, General Motors’ renewables and energy strategy manager.

Jay Creech, REI Co-op
Renewable Energy Manager
REI strives to build on market-based accounting to achieve outcomes that REI believes are essential to impactful energy attribute certificates and accelerating the clean energy transition. Jay discusses how REI’s aim is to make clean energy more local and accessible. Read our interview.

Kelly Snyder, EDP Renewables North America
Senior Director of Origination
Making clean energy procurement more accessible is a part of EDP’s core mission. Kelly explains how voluntary markets allow customers to drive impact by helping bring clean energy projects onto the grid through their purchasing power. Read our interview.

John D. Powers, Schneider Electric
Vice President, Global Renewables and Clean Tech
Schneider Electric has set a RE100 goal and also advises companies in setting similar goals. John talks about why companies need credible ways to reduce emissions and receive credit for it without being accused of greenwashing. 
Read our interview.



Jeannie Renné-Malone, VF Corporation
Vice President of Global Sustainability
VF Corporation has set a goal to power its direct operations with renewable energy by FY 2026. Jeannie discusses how markets enable VF to explore a wider range of cost-effective renewable energy options and why more access to energy storage would help. 
Read our interview.



Monica Walker, General Motors
Renewables and Energy Strategy Manager
GM has committed to achieving 100% renewable energy usage in its U.S. operations by 2025. Monica explains how market-based accounting affects GM’s decision making and what’s needed to help customers further decarbonize the grid.
Read our interview.