Tech $$$ Still Driving New Energy

Tech Investments Are Powering Up Clean Energy; Spending on renewables is good for sustainability goals while being good PR. It’s also great for business.

Nathaniel Bullard, September 29, 2018 (Bloomberg News)

“…Three years ago, Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Facebook Inc. spent $40 billion on big-ticket physical assets; last year, they invested $80 billion, putting them in the ranks of automakers, oil and gas companies, and telecoms in terms of capital expenditure outlays…Since 2010, they’ve signed agreements to buy nearly 18,000 megawatts from [New Energy] generators of clean power…[and] are the biggest buyers; governments and universities are a distant second…[The main reason] is that long-term contracts with [New Energy generators] have no variable costs…They give companies visibility on their power prices for several decades and, at least historically, have offered cheaper prices than what the grid provides…Since 2010, it’s been mostly wind power, but we can see the approach to parity (or better) for solar in the past year...

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…[T]ech companies’ demand has induced more than $15 billion in wind and solar investment just in the U.S. Announced wind and solar capex this year is more than $2 billion, with months yet to go, and with wind and solar capital costs half what they were in 2014…[That] wouldn’t have happened without tech companies…[E]very wind or solar project built to meet the needs of a tech company helps drive down the costs of wind and solar power through greater deployment…[It] makes an impact on the entire energy system…[and tech investments in vehicle electrification is also beginning to impact] the transportation sector…” click here for more

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