Amazon-owned Meta and Alphabet-owned Google are the largest corporate investors in wind and solar power in the US, according to new data.
AND report (opens in a new tab) from the American Clean Power Association (ACPA), a pressure group that also revealed that while the tech industry is (perhaps understandably) leading by example by buying 48% of all clean energy, others are following suit.
The amount of clean energy purchased by corporations across industries such as energy, telecommunications, and food and beverage has increased by an average of 73% per year over the past decade, with investments spreading to 49 states, Washington, and Puerto Rico.
Pure energy optimism
Perhaps even more surprising is that 35% of the contracted power purchased by corporations comes from Texas, a state well known for its “oil boom” in the early 20th century.
This detail in the ACPA report is the second sign that the US oil industry may be weakening in 2023, after Business today (opens in a new tab) recently reported that industry data showed signs of declining demand for fossil fuels across the country.
US corporations seem to have come to terms with the fact that clean energy is a necessary, albeit long-term, investment. To date, 77.4 gigawatts (GW) have been contracted across more than 300 corporations, enough to power 1,000 data centers or 18 million homes.
Despite this staggering investment, more than half of that energy is still not available online. However, an ACPA spokesman said CNBC that he expects to do so “within the next three years.”
Such commitments are welcome. However, as much as we like to attribute ethics to giants like Amazon, Meta and Google, all of which have recently been embroiled in sick leave, data abuseand monopoly on ad revenue Controversy, the main motive behind the transition of big tech is much less complicated.
The ACPA report states that the price of investing in clean energy finally appears to be low enough for companies to take decisive action.
Solar and wind have seen cost cuts of 71% and 47%, respectively, over the past decade, and while power purchase agreements (PPA) costs increased in 2022, U.S. companies continued to buy 20GW of clean power by the end of the year, 4GW higher than in any other year.
While the reason the United States is pushing for clean energy isn’t as noble, it’s still comforting to know that cross-sectoral efforts to shift to renewables will be better for the planet in the long run.
Through CNBC (opens in a new tab)