When the lights flick on in our offices in Denmark and across Europe, electricity consumption is covered by new renewable power from Danish solar parks.

With our targets set on eliminating emissions from our own power consumption, we turned to one of our own core competencies: tailoring power purchase agreements to match green procurement strategies. Early in 2021, we signed a 10-year production PPA for renewable power with Danish solar developer Better Energy, leading to the development and construction of two new Danish solar parks expected to produce 112 GWh of new renewable power every year – enough to power approximately 70,000 Danish homes. Complementing that deal, we finalised a long-term green power certificates purchasing agreement, meaning that electricity consumption in our offices in both Denmark and the rest of Europe is covered by green power production from one of these new solar parks located approximately 40km from our headquarters in Aalborg, Denmark.

Tailoring green PPAs to match procurement strategies for our corporate customers is a core business competence for us, and as Rene Treumer Andersen explains “In this case we used our own PPA products to eliminate the emissions from the power we consume – the first and foremost priority on our journey to meet net-zero targets”.

While new renewable energy projects have historically required public subsidies, the Better Energy solar parks have been developed fully on market terms. That’s significant because financing structures without the need for subsidies is a key element in scaling up the development of new renewable assets.

“Businesses can make a difference for the green transition by demanding new green power. When Centrica wishes to source its electricity from additional subsidy free solar parks, it has a concrete and very real effect on the buildout of Danish solar parks” explains Rasmus Lildholdt Kjær, CEO for Better Energy, adding that businesses can lead by example and accelerate the green transition by purchasing new green power instead of purchasing certificates from older assets.