As 100 Percent Renewables Become the New Norm, a New Role for Utilities Emerges
May 22, 2017
By Indran Ratnathicam

Portland, Ore., is one of the most recent municipalities to join dozens of cities and states across the U.S. in pledges to run on 100 percent renewable energy in the coming decades. Portland is taking a two-step approach toward its goal: first, the city and county in which it’s located have committed to work with energy utilities Portland General Electric (PGE) and Pacific Power to shift the electricity portfolio to renewable sources by 2035; second, it will eliminate all direct fossil fuel use, such as vehicle fuels, natural gas and home heating oil.

While Portland prides itself on being environmentally conscious, more and more government leaders across the country are introducing similarly aggressive measures — from Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Madison, Wis., to San Diego and the state of Hawaii.

A similar movement is happening at the corporate level. Leaders of some of the nation’s biggest companies are adopting 100 percent renewable purchasing initiatives. Leaders include Walmart, Nike, Nestle, Salesforce, Microsoft and Facebook, among many others, and are all part of the global Renewable Energy 100 Initiative. Per RE100’s 2016 annual report, the 90 companies in the program were, on average, already halfway to reaching their goal. Salesforce even accomplished its aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its global footprint by 2050, a whopping 33 years earlier than anticipated. Now that’s some serious momentum.

Wind and solar are among the most popular renewable energy sources, and companies are putting significant dollars behind adopting and expanding these programs. Wind has blown its way to the top of the list of renewables with record growth in 2016, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The growth is due in part to large-scale corporate initiatives such as General Motor’s (GM) wind-powered Arlington, TX assembly plant and 7-Eleven’s plan to power most of its Texas stores with wind energy beginning in 2018. Joining the likes of GM and 7-Eleven, as well as Facebook and Home Depot in wind energy investments, Apple recently announced that a soon-to-be-built wind farm in Oregon will power one of its data centers, which is located about 130 miles away. This is Apple’s largest renewable energy investment to date.

Given government organizations and corporations make up most of a utility’s customer base...