LevelTen Energy has partnered with Google to launch a new platform for clean energy procurement. LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process (LEAP) reduces the amount of time it takes to secure power purchase agreements (PPAs) from the typical 12 months or longer down to two to three months.
Through LEAP, energy buyers and their advisors can now use the LevelTen Platform to issue a request for proposal (RFP) with a standardized PPA designed to reflect the realities of current market conditions, with contract terms that intentionally balance the interests of both parties to eliminate the tedious and time-consuming negotiation process. Then, as clean energy project developers respond with their price offers and project details, the revolutionary LEAP workflow enables them to choose certain “seller elections,” if desired, that enable them to customize the PPA from within the platform to meet the needs of their project or company. By combining the RFP and PPA contracting stages into one step, LEAP has enabled PPAs to be executed in 80% less time than typical procurement processes.
According to BloombergNEF, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require an investment of $7 trillion per year into a wide range of technologies.
“We need to speed up investment in clean energy exponentially to achieve corporate sustainability goals and, more importantly, to make an impact on the climate crisis,” said Jason Tundermann, chief operating officer at LevelTen. “With LEAP, energy buyers and sellers of all kinds can skip protracted contract negotiations and sign PPAs faster to bring more clean energy to the grid.”
Google collaborated with LevelTen to develop the accelerated process and launch the first LEAPs on the platform.
“Google and LevelTen have each seen countless negotiations drag on, only to end up in the middle,” Tundermann explained. “We’re at a point where standardization is both possible and necessary to see this market scale. That’s why we’ve been so excited to develop this alongside Google, and to now make it available to everyone via the LevelTen Platform.”
Google saw the need for a better process for contracting PPAs.
“From over a decade of experience contracting PPAs, we learned that the process needed to be more efficient, not only to help us reach our own 24/7 carbon-free ambitions, but in order to transition our electricity grids in time to keep the planet under 1.5 degrees C of warming,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google. “We joined forces with LevelTen to design an entirely new process, and the result has already enabled us to execute PPAs within weeks, compared to the traditional period of 12 months or even more. This approach builds a better system for clean energy buyers and sellers. LevelTen’s announcement making LEAP available to the market opens the doors for more organizations to join the journey to a carbon-free grid.”
Developers also benefit from LEAP’s process advantages. Reducing the time it takes to secure a PPA means more certainty in pricing, reduced legal costs, faster reinvestment of capital into other projects, and more clarity in the timeline for contracting, staffing, and project financing.
“If you’re a developer, imagine being able to close a deal in three months instead of 12 months or more,” said Tundermann. “If your team could complete just one more project each year as a result, you might be able to earn tens of millions in additional revenue per year.”
The faster procurement timelines possible with LEAP provides advantages to developers.
“Securing a PPA via LEAP was notably faster than a conventional PPA procurement,” said Duarte Bello, COO of EDP Renewables for Europe and LATAM. “It was a huge advantage for us to be able to reduce the current market uncertainty and move from the RFP stage to having a PPA ready for signature in a matter of weeks. By being able to secure PPAs for more projects in less time, we can build our portfolio of clean energy projects faster.”
Tags: Google, LevelTen Energy, partnership, PPAs, procurement
