Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and ENGIE Resources announced a series of multiyear energy agreements through 2024 in which the university will purchase energy from the Radford’s Run Wind Farm for its Pittsburgh campus.
Martin Altschul, director of strategic facilities initiatives at CMU, said that ENGIE’s support of wind projects played a critical role in its selection for retail power.
“We believe sustainability is far more than an academic concept or a performance target,” he said. “It’s a way of life that we reflect in our programs, courses and student-led initiatives aimed at preserving and protecting our natural resources. It’s also ingrained in our approach to responsible financial planning. ENGIE shares in our dedication, and we’re pleased to have them as an ally in our sustainable business strategy.”
ENGIE Resources and Amerex Energy Services jointly designed a structure to procure energy sourced from the Radford’s Run Wind Farm in Macon County, Illinois, to serve all of the campus’ electricity needs. In a separate agreement, CMU secured Green-e certified Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to match its energy usage.
“We’re proud to work with Carnegie Mellon University on an energy plan that supports both its sustainability and financial goals,” said Vikram Kulkarni, VP of sustainability solutions at ENGIE. “By linking renewable assets, traded markets and counterparties willing to offset risk, we strive to make the complex easy for our customers, managing all these components to provide provenance to physical renewable energy sources with budget certainty via competitive prices.”
After more than a decade of offsetting 100% of its electric power consumption via REC purchases, CMU was interested in another solution to be more sustainable. With these agreements, CMU encourages wind development across its local power grid without deploying its own capital while demonstrating its commitment to an environmentally responsible campus community.
Green-e RECs are determined by the Center for Resource Solutions to be independently verified to represent the environmental benefits of one MWh of renewable energy.
“Bringing ENGIE — a world-class organization known for its commitment to renewables and a strong balance sheet — together with Carnegie Mellon University made a lot of sense,” said John Bolton, managing director at Amerex. “This structure offers a 100% renewable, fixed-price load following solution that provides budget certainty through a simple, standard retail commodity agreement with flexible terms.”
News item from ENGIE Resources
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