Mercedes-Benz signs Germany’s 1st corporate renewable PPA

Carmaker Mercedes-Benz has signed Germany’s first corporate renewable Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), as part of plans to supply all its German plants with CO2-neutral energy by 2022.

According to a press release from the carmaker, Mercedes-Benz will buy wind power for its German operations through a corporate renewable PPA signed with Norway’s state-owned Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy and a major energy trader.

In Germany, Statkraft is the market leader in managing renewable assets on behalf of third parties with a total portfolio of 10,000 MW.

The German carmaker will buy 46 MW worth of wind power from six wind farms in Lower Saxony and Bremen. The wind power will be used to produce Mercedes-Benz’s EQC electric car and will also be supplied to the company’s battery production locations.

Time to go home.

Photo by Teymur.https://t.co/SYJmvMReMc

[Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 4MATIC | Stromverbrauch im kombinierten Testzyklus: 22,2 kWh/100 km | CO₂-Emissionen kombiniert: 0 g/km | https://t.co/5xEnpzfmik] pic.twitter.com/mtGI3TEBMN

— Mercedes-Benz (@MercedesBenz) January 4, 2019

Earlier in 2018, Mercedes-Benz announced Europe’s first automotive PPA with a 45 MW Polish wind farm to power its manufacturing facility in the nearby town of Jawor, with the longer-term goal to source all of its power needs from renewables.

“Excellent example” ahead of end of feed-in tariff

The latest PPA will help lock in a stable revenue for the six wind farms, which are due to drop out of the German national Feed-in-Tariff scheme (the EEG) as of 2021, said WindEurope, a Brussels-based association promoting wind power in Europe.

Corporate renewable PPAs are growing rapidly in Europe. More than 6 GW of capacity has already been signed in Europe, with almost 2 GW of that signed in 2018 alone. PPAs are expected to continue to expand rapidly in the next five years, WindEurope said.

Mercedes-Benz’s latest deal “sets an excellent example for other power consumers and other wind farms in Germany that will come off Feed-in-Tariff in 2021,” said WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson.

“Germany now needs to turn its attention to making sure new wind farms can also sign PPAs. As things stand today it is legally and administratively too complicated for them to do so. German policy-makers and legislators need to tackle this. PPAs will be only one of a number of instruments that will support the financing of wind farms. But they’re an important instrument, and they need to be available for both existing and new wind farms,” Dickson said.