Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has committed to power two-thirds or 65% of its national electricity needs from renewable energy from next January.
Image: The Sapphire wind farm can power nearly 115,000 Australian homes. Photo: Courtesy of Sapphire Wind Farm.
CBA has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Sapphire Wind Farm. As per this deal, majority of CBA’s New South Wales (NSW) and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) operations will be powered by the renewable energy supplied from the wind farm.
CAB stated that this PPA is a corporate deal with fixed baseload electricity purchased alongside an equal number of large-scale generation certificates.
Under the agreement, CBA will receive 96,000MWh of clean electricity annually from the Sapphire Wind Farm, which is part of the ‘Grassroots’ renewable energy platform built by CWP Renewables and the Partners Group.
The wind farm can generate enough clean electricity to power nearly 115,000 Australian homes, while offsetting nearly 700,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
Construction of the wind farm was recently completed in northern NSW. CBA was one of the key financiers for the wind farm project.
CBA corporate responsibility general manager Kylie Macfarlane said: “We continue to build on our strong track record of reducing energy use, and subsequent emissions, across our branches and offices. With this agreement, we will further decrease our carbon emissions by 60%.
“To be able to use renewable energy directly from the supplier for 65% of our Australian electricity needs is a significant step towards transitioning to 100% renewable electricity use.”
CWP Renewables CEO Alex Hewitt said: “Sapphire Wind Farm will add over 800,000 GWhrs of clean energy into the national electricity grid by December.
“Commonwealth Bank is taking the lead here as other large corporate energy users are starting to actively seek green energy direct from the generator. To have Commonwealth Bank as one of our direct buyers reinforces the fact dispatchable low-cost renewable energy is viable and economical.”
To further its commitment for a low carbon future, the Australian bank joined RE100, the global initiative for corporate organizations to source 100% of their energy needs from renewable sources.
The company stated that it will source 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.