Washington State energy provider Puget Sound Energy
announced this week that the second round of its Green Direct program has been
fully subscribed, providing participating local councils and businesses with an
opportunity to purchase 100% of their energy from local renewable energy
sources.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) announced on Tuesday that the
second round offering of its Green Direct project had been fully subscribed,
with participants benefiting from a mixture of wind and solar, including a 120
megawatt (MW) solar farm, Washington State’s largest such project. In addition,
Green Direct is supported by the 137 MW Skookumchuck Wind Project which
will be built in Lewis County, Washington. Further details about the project
developers is not available, as of yet.
The Green Direct initiative was approved by
the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) in early 2017
and presaged the first round which provided cities,
government institutions, and major commercial customers with the opportunity to
source their electricity from renewable energy sources. Companies sign long-term
Power Purchase Agreements through the initiative to source renewable energy to
meet all or part of their operations. Amidst the numerous cities and government
institutions, big-name commercial clients including Starbucks and Target also
signed up to the first round offering.
Green Direct led to Puget Sound Energy’s commitment to
reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2040, which it announced in December of 2017. Specifically, the company
committed to transitioning away from coal by the early 2030s after closing down
several of its coal operations during the 2020s. PSE has also committed to
securing renewable energy projects, building on the popularity of its Green
Direct project.
Fast-forward over a year and Puget Sound Energy has
announced that its second round offering has been completely subscribed,
following approval from the Washington UTC. In addition to more local cities
and government institutions — including the Washington Departments of Ecology,
Health, Labor & Industries, and Social & Health Services — two big-name
companies to join on to Green Direct include telecommunications giant T-Mobile
retail megalith Walmart.
Walmart will secure enough renewable energy through Green
Direct to power 12 stores — approximately 72% of the company’s load under Puget
Sound Energy.
“Walmart is happy to join PSE and others in supporting the
Green Direct program and the new renewable energy resources being supplied via
the program,” said Steve Chriss, Director of Energy and Strategy Analysis for
Walmart, Inc. “This initiative will play an instrumental role in Walmart’s
efforts to increase our renewable energy use and enhance our ongoing sustainability
efforts.”
T-Mobile, on the other hand, will receive enough clean
energy to power its Bellevue headquarters with 100% renewable energy by 2021 —
when the initiative’s latest solar project is set to come online.
“At T-Mobile, we really mean it when we say we’re going to
clean up wireless for good … and in this case that means cleaning up our impact
on the planet by making a BIG commitment to renewable energy,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “We’ve put a stake in
the ground to go 100% renewable by 2021 — because it’s the right thing to do
and it’s smart business.”
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