Green power: how companies are taking charge of their own destiny

WHAT could luxury fashion house Prada possibly have in common with the likes of gritty cement maker Holcim? Or Ferragamo with aluminium producer Alcoa?

They have all joined the growing list of European companies deciding they can’t wait around for countries to expand renewable energy capacity. They are deliberately using their purchasing power to enable new large-scale solar and wind farms to be built, in a bid to meet their own decarbonisation targets. Prada and Ferragamo are two of 12 leading textile brands that three weeks ago signed a collective long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with renewables developer, Lightsource bp. 

Such contracts were the subject of a lively debate last week at the Financial Times Energy Transition summit. They lock a company into paying for a large volume, if not the majority, of renewable power for 10 years or more from a project yet to be built, making it easier for developers to fund new green projects without the usual government subsidy.