Nike has signed its first European clean energy deal with Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, marking the latest in a series of corporate power purchase agreements that have provided a boost to the renewables industry. The deal follows record-setting corporate clean energy agreements last year, which more than doubled compared with the previous year, and helped fund the equivalent of 8 per cent of new wind and solar projects. The Nike agreement to buy 40MW of power from Iberdrola’s wind project in northern Spain will mean that all of the sportswear maker’s offices in Europe will be powered by renewable energy by 2020, when the Spanish wind farm is complete. Corporations have emerged as some of the biggest funders of c lean energy projects, a trend that started with tech companies like Facebook and Google buying power for their data centres, and has since spread to heavy industry and retail.
FT 6th Feb 2019 read more »