Novartis has signed a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with Invenergy for 100MW Santa Rita East wind farm in Texas.
Image: Invenergy secures PPA with Novartis. Photo: Courtesy of Richard Dudley/FreeImages.com
The 12-year VPPP will support Novartis in its environmental sustainability strategy and goals. As per the VPPA, 100MW of power from the wind farm located 70 miles west of San Angelo will be supplied to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
The project is expected to reduce Novartis’ greenhouse gas emissions by more than 220,000 metric tons per year. Invenergy also stated that the VPPA represents more than 70% of the pharmaceutical company’s carbon footprint from purchased electricity in the US market.
Novartis environment business services global head Karen Coyne said: “At Novartis, we take our responsibility toward environmental sustainability very seriously. It is important to our organization, our associates, patients, investors and society overall.
“This power purchase agreement with Invenergy is in line with our sustainability strategy and is expected to help us reduce our carbon footprint, constrain costs and increase adoption of renewable energy.”
Invenergy has partnered with 12 corporate customers since 2015 to develop 1.54GW renewable energy capacity. This year, the company has signed more than 745MW in renewable energy PPAs to support major companies across the globe, including previously announced partnerships with MGM, Merck, Grupo Bimbo and Facebook.
In July, Invenergy was selected for the construction of two solar projects totaling 100MW for Pacific Power. Electricity generated from these wind farms will be supplied to power Facebook’s Prineville Data Center in Oregon.
These solar plants include 55MW Prineville Solar and 45MW Millican Solar, which will be located in Crook County, Oregon.