Month: January 2019

Happy New Year from 3Degrees’ CEO

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Hopefully, all of you were able to enjoy some downtime with your family and friends over the holidays last month.  I know I was – and that means I also had some much-needed time to sit and reflect on the past year, as well as gear up for the year ahead.  First things first: I am tremendously grateful for the impact that our customers made last year with our help. Together, we transacted over 47 million MWh of renewable energy and 2.3 million MT of carbon offsets. Just to put that in perspective, that is similar to the carbon sequestered of nearly 400 million acres of US forests in one year.  I couldn’t be prouder of the important work we’re doing to advance our mission of helping our clients and their customers take urgent action on climate change.  Which brings me to my next observation…

While there has been a lot of news this year about how much worse climate change is getting,  I remain optimistic. We are part of a unique ecosystem with the power to make it possible for people to take action on climate change, meet their emission reduction goal and make real impact.  And we’re seeing it happen at a faster pace. 2018 gave us a lot to be hopeful for:

  • According to the most recent NREL report, release Oct 2018, The last reporting year saw a 28% increase U.S. voluntary green power purchases
  • We also saw a dramatic increase in the number of aggregated renewable energy contracts signed. Which is exciting not only for rapid acceleration of renewable energy development but also for allowing companies of all sizes unprecedented access to the renewable energy market.
  • Since 2008, the fastest creator of blue collar jobs in the USA and worldwide has been clean energy. Whether these are construction jobs in solar or manufacturing jobs in electric vehicles, clean energy continues to be the place people look to build lasting careers in the 21st century.

While these statistics are promising and inspiring, I raise these in no way to minimize the issue – climate change can absolutely feel big and overwhelming.  We are taking on giant challenges, that require bold action. However, from my vantage point, I see more organizations than ever before stepping up to commit to true leadership through this complicated challenge and I find that inspiring.

Thank you, to all of you, for your hard work and commitment to addressing this urgent issue last year. There is much work the world needs us to do, and I look forward to continuing to tackle that challenge together in 2019.

Steve McDougal

Footnotes
1. EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator – https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator

2018 Impact Together

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In 2018, 3Degrees’ customers supported more renewable energy and carbon projects than ever before.

We are inspired by this commitment to take urgent action on climate change and look forward to joining together to make an even more significant impact in the coming year.

2018-impact

Click to view a downloadable PDF

 

Corporate Motivators for Sustainability Purchases

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Corporations aren’t just taking action to address their carbon footprint because it’s the right thing to do for the environment. Leading organizations are beginning to understand there are significant risks involved in electing to do nothing.

Here are some of the biggest corporate motivators for investing in sustainability – which of these apply to your business?

Want more information? Take a look at our RECs and Global Equivalents and our Carbon Offset Services Pages, or Contact us.

 

Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Wind Farm Facility (video)

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This 50 MW project came online in 2016 and is composed of 25 turbines. Over the course of construction, the project created construction jobs, helped boost the surrounding economy and provided an interesting project for local spectators to keep tabs on. Located in the small town of Huntington, Oregon, the wind farm is located on a family owned ranch and is expected to be fully operational for 20 years.

WATCH PACIFIC POWER’S VIDEO

Bearkat 1: Texas Wind Farm

Bearkat 1: Texas Wind Farm 

Just east of Midland, TX, a new wind project called Bearkat 1 has recently completed construction. The massive new wind turbines provide a stark contrast to the oil wells that make up much of the West Texas skyline.

Bearkat is one of the first U.S. wind development projects owned by the Danish organization Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and 3Degrees committed to a long-term REC off-take from this new project.

The full development will be comprised of 104 Vestas V126-3.45 MW wind turbines, spanning nearly 30,000 acres and will generate close to 360 MW of clean energy. The scale of this project is so large that it was developed in two separate phases.

+    Bearkat 1: 57 turbines that will generate 197.6 MW of wind energy

+    Bearkat 2: Began development immediately after the first phase was up and running and has a lifetime capacity of 162.1 MW. This project consists of 47 turbines, resulting in a total of 104 wind turbines between the two projects.

Tri Global Energy (TGE), the developer of the Bearkat project, has a unique business model that engages landowners at a very intimate level and offers them unique benefits.  Instead of paying upfront costs for developing a new wind project on landowners’ property, TGE provides a guarantee for electricity royalties for the next 50 years, providing the landowners with equity in the wind farm developed on their property. Because of the sheer size of Bearkat, 55 different landowners will be able to take advantage of this incentive for decades to come.

3Degrees + RECS

 

www.green-e.org

3Degrees’ Multiple Mix Product is Green-e Energy certified and meets the environmental and consumer protection standards set forth by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions. Learn more at: www.green-e.org.