Trends in Organizational Renewable Energy Strategy: From Short-term Procurement to Long-term Investment in the EPA Green Power Partnership

This paper analyzes the development path followed by 50 organizations procuring renewable energy using data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership. It examines whether organizations transition from short-term procurements to longer term investments. Renewable energy procurement data from 2007-2013 includes green power, electric load, and green power product information. The analysis includes size and sectors as possible factors in the development of organizational capacity to move from annual purchases of renewable energy certificates to investments in on-site renewable energy generation. Having data that span the economic recession adds an additional dimension to trends observed in this voluntary program. The study concludes that organizations do enter the partnership with low order commitments to green power and advance to longer term investments over time, as evidenced by investment in on-site generation. While the analysis supports size as a contributor to this development, the role industry sector plays is less clear.