Faster approach to clean energy RFPs and PPAs now available for clean energy buyers in North America and Europe
Seattle, WA – September 12, 2023 – Today LevelTen Energy announces the availability of LEAP™, LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process™, a new approach to clean energy procurement that 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. 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,” said Jason Tundermann, Chief Operating Officer, LevelTen Energy.
Google Collaborated with LevelTen to Launch the First LEAPs
Google collaborated with LevelTen to develop the accelerated process and launch the first LEAPs on the LevelTen 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.”
“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°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.”
LEAP Provides Developers with Certainty, Speed and Flexibility
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,” he said.
“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.”
The Future of PPA Procurements
“We believe LEAP will become the new standard for PPA contracting, and is particularly effective in a market as dynamic as today’s,” said Tundermann. “The advantages for both buyer and seller make it a clear improvement over the industry’s standard process. Building on the mutual success this process delivered to Google and their developer counterparts, we look forward to helping more parties leverage LEAP to exceed their financial goals and build more renewable energy, faster than ever.”
If you are interested in participating in LEAP, reach out to LevelTen Energy at info@leveltenenergy.com and learn more from Google’s blog post and the LevelTen blog.
About LevelTen Energy
LevelTen Energy delivers the marketplaces, software, automated analytics, data and expertise required to accelerate clean energy transactions. The LevelTen Platform is the world’s largest online hub for renewable energy buyers, sellers, advisors, asset owners and financiers. The Platform includes the LevelTen Energy Marketplace, which delivers access to more than 4,500 power purchase agreement price offers spanning 28 countries in North America and Europe. It also includes the LevelTen Asset Marketplace, which brings together over 800 renewable energy project developers and owners, and delivers the online tools and expertise they need to buy, sell and finance assets in North America and Europe. In addition, LevelTen’s MarketPulse software and quarterly Price Index reports deliver insights into the clean energy market based on actual market activity. Together, LevelTen and its partners share #OneGoal to accelerate the energy transition. Visit LevelTenEnergy.com to learn more.
