Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

What We Do

The Business Renewables Center (BRC) is a member-based platform that streamlines and accelerates corporate purchasing of off-site, large-scale wind and solar energy.

The Need

Nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have set ambitious renewable energy or related sustainability targets. While renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) can be novel and complex, they present a fast and effective way for large companies to fulfill their sustainability targets. The BRC helps corporations unlock this tremendous opportunity.

The Community

BRC members collectively embody the know-how of the industry—they were involved in 85% of corporate renewables deals in 2015. Our nearly 120 members include major corporations, leading renewable energy project developers, and transaction intermediaries.

Our Tools and Resources

The BRC makes it easier for corporations to enter the renewable energy market by sharing the hard-earned lessons of the first movers. We publish primers and guides on such topics as PPA accounting and deal structures, and host semiannual conferences to bring veteran renewable purchasers and deal makers together with those who are exploring the opportunity. These tools help first-time buyers up the learning curve so that they successfully complete their first deals faster, easier, and better.

For long-term members, we provide access to ongoing market intelligence through the BRC Marketplace and Deal Tracker, our semiannual conferences and webinars, market insight reports, blogs and newsletters, webinars, and more.

Join Us We are growing rapidly, as is corporate renewable power purchasing, and we invite you to join us.

It is more than 50 years ago that I completed my formal education: Engineering and Economics at Cambridge followed by professional training (articles) in Accountancy in London. Metrics have been at the center of my professional life. The management of profit performance and stock market investment is driven by money metrics which are both simple and sophisticated and also powerful . Metrics about social impact and impact on natural systems are difficult, fascinating, but from a management perspective of almost zero importance. There is a huge need for a data architecture that does for society and the environment what conventional double entry accounting does for money and financial wealth.

I see a huge need to have a data architecture that enables a coherent, simple and relevant flow of data that measure progress and performance about everything in our complex socio-enviro-economic system, and works for all the components of this system and is difficult to game in support of any special interest. This is what I am trying to do with True Value Accounting and seems to have some compatibility with the work being done by BRC

The BRC’s History

The Business Renewables Center (BRC) streamlines and accelerates the corporate procurement of utility-scale wind and solar energy. Today, the BRC’s corporate members have a collective annual revenue of $1.2 trillion and consume 60 terawatt-hours of electricity per year—equivalent to roughly 5.5 million American homes—but our story began not long ago.

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent, non-partisan nonprofit that drives clean energy, first identified the potential for corporations to be major drivers of renewable energy demand in the U.S. in 2013, when only a handful of corporations had procured large-scale renewable power. Through engaging with industry, RMI also recognized that market barriers hindered corporations from executing large-scale wind and solar transactions and resolved to establish a member-based platform to overcome those barriers. In April 2014, the nascent BRC got strong validation as proof of concept when it won a Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Resilience (“FiRe”) award.

RMI brought together corporations, project developers, and intermediaries in November 2014 to establish the BRC. In February 2015, the BRC publicly launched with 28 founding members, including General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Nestlé Waters, Owens Corning, and Salesforce, and a who’s-who of project developers and transaction service providers. By March 2016, membership had tripled to over 90 members. Corporate power purchasing also nearly tripled in 2015, growing to 3.21 gigawatts from 1.18 gigawatts in 2014; BRC-affiliated companies were involved in 85% of those transactions.

The goal of the BRC is to help corporations procure 60 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.

The goal of the BRC is to help corporations procure 60 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, and we are well on our way. Last year, corporations displaced utilities as the majority purchasers of wind power. As more corporations realize they can lock in long-term affordable prices for clean energy that supports the bottom line, reduces their carbon footprint, and fulfill their corporate sustainability commitments, we expect the BRC to continue to expand its membership.

Primers

The Business Renewables Center’s online primers cover the most important technical issues related to off-site corporate renewable energy transactions.

Accounting Primer

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The Accounting Primer describes the how leading companies have addressed their accounting department’s three key concerns.

Economic Analysis Primer

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The Economic Analysis Primer explains how companies calculate a deal’s NPV and identifies the key issues to address.

Deal Structure Primer

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The Deal Structure Primer reviews common types of transactions, along with the pros and cons of each approach.

Risk Allocation Primer

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The Risk Allocation Primer describes key risks in power purchase agreements and how they can be allocated.

Finance Primer

accountingThe Finance Primer describes (i) the types of finance used for large, off-site, renewable energy projects, (ii) the main issues to consider in order to structure a bankable PPA and (iii) how allocation of risks will impact financing.

Guides

The Business Renewables Center’s online guides cover the most important organizational issues related to successfully closing a large-scale renewable transaction.

Internal Support Guide

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The Internal Support Guide describes why leading companies have chosen to purchase renewable energy and details what key steps to take to generate internal approval.

Deal Dream Team Guide

team The Deal Dream Team Guide explains how companies can create teams with the necessary skill sets to complete transactions.

Deal Process Guide process The Deal Process Guide reviews the essential four stages of completing a transaction.

Want to learn more?

BRC case studies are available to our members. Click the link to learn how to join the BRC. ABOUT BRC COMMUNITY TOOLS & RESOURCES NEWS & EVENTS MEMBER LOGIN Copyright ©1990-2016 Rocky Mountain Institute.® All rights reserved.

Corporate Members*

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*Some corporate members are anonymous and not listed

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