Finance & Investment Innovation & Technology

$94B Needed to Realize RE100 Renewable Energy Targets by 2030

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has released a new report that reveals that signatories of the RE100 initiative have a long way to go to achieve their 100 percent renewable energy targets by 2030. For the initiative’s 128 members to meet their goal, they will need to spend an estimated $94 billion. According to Bloomberg, this is enough to procure 172 TWh of renewable power and add 87 gigawatts of new wind and solar power capacity.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 6 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Image: American Public Power Association/Unsplash

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has released a new report that reveals that signatories of the RE100 initiative have a long way to go to achieve their 100 percent renewable energy targets by 2030.

For the initiative’s 128 members to meet their goal, they will need to spend an estimated $94 billion. According to Bloomberg, this is enough to procure 172 TWh of renewable power and add 87 gigawatts of new wind and solar power capacity.

However, the analysis suggests that companies may not meet their 100 percent renewable pledge by the 2030 deadline with clean power alone. Bloomberg anticipates that companies will enlist a variety of different approaches to satisfy their commitments, including Power Purchase Agreements, certificates, on-site generation and utility contracts.

Kyle Harrison, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, suggests that this has important implications for the global energy market. “The clean energy demands of these corporations will catalyze billions of dollars in clean-energy investment,” Harrison said. “Corporations can have a real say in power-market design.”

Robust renewables markets won’t be the only ones affected — even those with slow-growing demand are expected to present a promising market for solar and wind power.

The current group of RE100 signatories, which include Google, Danone, Bank of America, HPE and P&G, consumed around 163 TWh of electricity in 2016 — more than the electricity consumption of countries such as Sweden. Bloomberg forecasts that by 2030 electricity demand will grow to at least 223 TWh.

RE100 was launched in 2014 at Climate Week NYC by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. The global initiative focuses on transitioning the private sector — which accounts for around half of the world’s electricity consumption — to 100 percent renewable energy.

According to RE100’s most recent Annual Report, 25 members achieved their 100 percent target by the end of 2016, including Autodesk, Marks and Spencer and Sky. The group’s newest member Fifth Third Bank, is expected to become the first member company to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity through a single power project.