Telecom giant Verizon announced that it has entered a series of new Renewable Energy Purchase Agreements (REPAs), securing approximately 910 MW of energy from seven new solar and wind facilities currently under development.
The announcement follows the issuance in September last year by the company of $1 billion of green bonds, marking the third such offering by Verizon since 2019. According to the company, the proceeds from the most recent offering will be used to fund the newly announced deals.
The new renewable energy deals include four 15-year REPAs with Leeward Renewable Energy for 640 MW of capacity from projects in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM) Interconnection and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) regional markets, a 15-year REPA with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions for an aggregate of 180 MW of capacity from a facility in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) regional market, and two 15-year REPAs with Lightsource bp for an aggregate of 89.9 MW of capacity from facilities, located in the PJM Interconnection regional market.
Including the new REPAs, Verizon has now secured approximately 2.6 GW of projected renewable energy capacity in 20 deals since 2019, making the company one of the leading corporate buyers of renewable energy in the U.S., and positioning Verizon to achieve its sustainability goals to source or generate renewable energy equivalent to 50 percent of its total annual electrical consumption by 2025, and reach net zero operational emissions by 2035.
Matt Ellis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Verizon, said:
“We are proud to achieve this key milestone in the transition to renewable energy. These new agreements will be funded by our third $1 billion green bond, which we issued in September 2021, and are fundamental to the company’s ongoing efforts to be net zero in its operational emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 2035.”
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