Intel makes largest purchase of renewable electricity
London, 31 January: Computer chip manufacturer Intel has made the largest ever single purchase of renewable energy, 1.3 million MWh, representing the power consumption of its US facilities in one year.

Intel ‘greened’ its power purchases by buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Sterling Planet, a Norcross, Georgia-based renewable energy supplier, under a multi-year contract.

Sterling Planet will source the RECs from a mix of renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, small-scale hydroelectric, landfill-gas-to-energy and biomass. The RECs are certified to the Green-e standard – a scheme giving assurance to REC buyers that they are actually reducing the environmental impact of their energy use.

Energy producers are issued with RECs for each MWh of green electricity they generate. Each REC can be sold to provide financial support for renewable sources that typically have higher costs than fossil fuel and nuclear production. Demand for RECs comes from state mandates on renewable energy, or from voluntary buyers such as Intel.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but is likely to run into several million dollars. RECs trade in a wide price range, with those from solar generation typically the most expensive – at the top of the range they can reach $20/MWh – while RECs from wind tend to be cheaper, according to Mel Jones, president and CEO of Sterling Planet.