Skip to main content

Risk, Reward, & Reality: The Future of Clean Energy with Hans Royal

Our session focused on the US renewable energy landscape, and the 3 major macro trends impacting both buyers and sellers of renewable electricity: 

  1. The policy landscape and expiring federal incentives,
  2. The AI datacenter boom and the impact on electricity markets, and
  3. Changes to the greenhouse gas protocol (GHGP) and the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

Ultimately, all 3 macro trends point to the same answer: the time to structure strategic, long-term renewable energy contracts in the US is NOW.

Key Takeaways:

Time is of the essence to buy and sell PPAs and other strategic renewable energy contracts, before incentives expire and before the AI datacenter boom increases electricity costs in specific markets across the country. 

We also learned from the developers on the panel some ideas on what it takes for commercial & industrial companies to compete for renewable energy contracts in an ultra-competitive environment: flexibility, understanding of developer challenges and the willingness to find win/win solutions to ensure projects can get built.

“The time to act on US renewables is now, and it's not just a sustainability story. CFOs are starting to understand that long-term PPAs are not only a powerful tool to achieve decarbonization goals but can also be a way to hedge against the unprecedented, asymmetric risk of energy repricing driven by AI data center demand.”

Contributor:

Hans Royal