How Power Purchase Agreements impact renewable energy goals
With the help of Power Purchase Agreements, manufacturers, like Stepan Company, can source green power to reduce our overall manufacturing and product footprint.
One of Stepan Company’s sustainability goals is to source 20% of our global electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Across the globe, Stepan is investing in renewable energy, including the development of on-site solar at two facilities: Stepan's Agricultural Innovation Center in Georgia and our Salto, Brazil manufacturing facility.
In 2022 we achieved our renewable energy goal, with over 45% of electricity covered by various renewable sources, including renewable energy certificates, on-site solar and other agreements. We continue to work on using resources responsibly and reducing our manufacturing and product emissions footprint.
As part of this work, our Voreppe, France manufacturing site signed the Company’s first-ever Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in early 2023. PPAs connect a producer of green power (wind, solar and hydroelectric power) with an energy consumer, like Stepan. Voreppe’s PPA guarantees that the power supplier is a local, dedicated supply generator. The local PPA power producer is Alpiq, which is 90 kilometers away from the Voreppe plant and produces hydroelectric power at a plant located in Savoie, France.
In addition to the PPA, which covers approximately 60% of the plant’s power, the Voreppe site covers the remaining electricity usage with Green Origins Certificates (GOs), which certify that electricity has been generated from a renewable source in Europe.
Stepan’s Stalybridge team also utilizes renewable energy through green certificates, and our Procurement team continues to look for opportunities to source renewable energy in other regions.
To learn more about Sustainability at Stepan, read our 2022 Sustainability report.
