This slidedeck highlights WRI research on transformative procurement practices large energy buyers can use to help advance a clean energy transition.

1. IMAGE: FLICKR/MICHAEL MULLER
ACTIONS LARGE ENERGY BUYERS CAN TAKE
TO TRANSFORM AND DECARBONIZE THE GRID:
Procurement Practices for Achieving 100% Carbon Free Electricity
August 24, 2021

2. AGENDA
• Welcome Remarks
• Transformative Clean Energy Procurement Practices
• Panelist Perspectives
– Reid Spolek: Senior Energy Lead, Google
– Josh Mandelbaum: City Councilmember, Des Moines, Iowa
– Tia Hansen: Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
• Panelist Discussion
• Questions & Answer Period
• Closing Remarks

3. TODAY’S SPEAKERS
Lori Bird
U.S. Energy
Director & Polsky
Chair for
Renewable
Energy,
World Resources
Institute
Norma
Hutchinson
Research Analyst,
World Resources
Institute
Reid Spolek
Senior Energy
Lead,
Google
Josh
Mandelbaum
City
Councilmember,
Des Moines, Iowa
Tia Hansen
Senior Program
Manager,
Microsoft

4. REPORT LAUNCH
Access World Resources Institute’s
issue brief at:
https://www.wri.org/research/actions-
large-energy-buyers-can-take-
transform-and-decarbonize-grid

5. A CARBON-FREE GRID REQUIRES RAPID
CHANGE AND NEW CUSTOMER ROLES
Grid transition needed for net-zero by 2050:
• 10s-100s of GW per year of new
renewables
• 3-5x today’s transmission
• Large flexible loads: 50-180 GW of six-hour
batteries
• 240 new 1 GW nuclear reactors
• 300+ natural gas combined cycle-carbon
capture & storage plants
• Carbon capture at ~1000+ facilities
Transition Needed in U.S. Over Next Decade
Sources: UC Berkeley 2035 Report (90% Clean Energy) & Princeton Net Zero America Study

6. LARGE ENERGY BUYERS HAVE BEEN DRIVING
SUBSTANTIAL RENEWABLES DEPLOYMENT
• Between 2011 and 2020,
corporate buyers purchased
76 GW of clean energy
PPAs globally
• Wood Mackenzie estimates
85 GW of corporate
renewable energy demand
in U.S. by 2030
Sources: BloombergNEF (January 2021)
Global PPA Corporate Volumes (GW)

7. TRANSFORMATIVE CLEAN ENERGY
PROCUREMENT IS NEEDED GOING FORWARD
Enables an
Equitable & Just
Transition
Enables New
Technologies
and Innovations
Enables Broader
Adoption of
Clean Energy
Accelerates
Clean Energy
Deployment
Maximizes
Emissions
Reductions &
Grid
Decarbonization
Characteristics of Transformative Clean Energy Procurement
Buyers can do more to help with the transition to a carbon free grid; advanced procurement practices are needed

8. • 24/7 carbon-free goals or other load matching (e.g., Google, Des
Moines)
Time-Coincident Purchasing
• Load shifting to accommodate clean energy (e.g., EV smart charging)
Procurement that Incorporates Demand
Flexibility
• Use of dispatchable clean energy (e.g., hydro, geothermal)
Using Firm, Dispatchable Clean Energy
Technologies
• New technologies such as storage, electrification, carbon capture
Incorporating Decarbonization-Enabling
Technologies
• Selecting, operating, and siting projects to maximize emissions
reductions
Maximizing Emissions Reductions
• Ensuring equity co-benefits (e.g., Apple’s workforce investments)
Ensuring Equitable Transition
TRANSFORMATIVE CLEAN ENERGY
PROCUREMENT PRACTICES

9. ADDRESSING TIMING OF CLEAN ENERGY USE
Matching Purchases to Load Hourly
• Today, most customer clean energy
purchases match demand annually
• Customers can buy clean energy that
aligns with their loads on an hourly basis
• Benefits are enabling more clean energy,
reducing curtailment, reducing fossil
reliance
– 24/7 matching is most ambitious form, could
also be for a fraction of customer demand
– Buyers could target specific time periods
that pose challenges for grid operators
– Examples: Google 24/7; Microsoft
100/100/0; Des Moines 24/7 goals
Shifting Loads & Increasing Demand
Flexibility
• Customers can shift demand to use clean
energy, temporarily curtail load to integrate
clean energy, or provide grid services
• Benefits grids by adding flexibility to
manage more variable wind/solar
– Shifting timing of loads
– Shifting loads across locations
– Expanding demand response
– Managing electric vehicle charging
– Aggregating distributed energy resources for
grid services

10. USING DISPATCHABLE CLEAN ENERGY AND NEW
DECARBONIZATION-ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Using New Dispatchable Clean Energy
• Firm, dispatchable technologies can provide
power on demand
• More dispatchable clean energy will be
needed to supplement variable wind/solar in
deep decarbonization
– e.g., hydro and geothermal
– Some buyers support use of nuclear and fossil
with carbon capture & storage for 24/7
purchasing goals
• Possible customer roles:
– Development of new projects
– Pilot projects for emerging technologies
– Alternative contracts for firm power
Using Storage and Decarbonization-
Enabling Technologies
• Grid transformation will require new
technologies, more storage, electrification
• New models can be developed for utility-
scale storage that benefits customers
• Buyers can incorporate enabling
technologies into clean energy portfolios
– Customer-sited storage
– Utility-scale storage
– Electrification, efficiency
– Carbon capture (e.g., Microsoft use of CCS for
negative emissions)

11. PRIORITIZING EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS AND
EQUITABLE TRANSITION
Maximizing Project Emissions Reductions
• Buyers can prioritize clean energy projects
based on expected emissions reductions
• Clean energy project operations can be
optimized to maximize emissions reductions
– Strategic operation of projects at high
emission time periods
– Strategic siting in high emission areas
– Technology choice to maximize emissions
reductions
– e.g., Salesforce ranks projects based on their
hourly emissions reductions among other
factors
Enabling an Equitable Transition
• Large energy buyers can integrate equity
into their procurement strategies to drive
an equitable clean energy transition
• Practices can be incorporated into all
types of procurement
― Projects with co-benefits in marginalized
communities
― Equitable workforce selection for project
development
― Equitable project siting
― Equitable supply chain practices

12. THE PATH FORWARD
Create new clean energy products and programs:
• Utilities and regulators can support innovative offerings that benefit
consumers and utilities while aiding in grid decarbonization
• Need price signals and incentives for actions that benefit the grid
– 24/7 clean energy products
– Shared utility-scale storage solutions
– Green tariffs that incorporate customer demand
Develop new metrics and tools for evaluating impact:
• Both customer side project evaluation and public reporting
• Evaluation metrics should consider hourly use, flexibility, dispatchable
generation, new technologies, emissions impacts and equity
– E.g., hourly clean energy tracking
Expand criteria for recognition:
• Purchaser recognition programs should consider expanding criteria for
recognition or awards for actions that enable grid transformation

13. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
• Deep decarbonization requires dramatic transformation not seen in
past
• Buyers need to increasingly optimize how, when and where they use
clean energy to transform grids
• Solutions will vary among buyers and across grids
– Customers have different load profiles, flexibility of loads, staff and
resources to implement practices
– Grids rely on different mix of resources, resource potential, and face
different challenges in achieving decarbonization
• Barriers exist to transformative procurement
– Practices can be more difficult to implement, involve increased costs,
and products may be unavailable
• New product offerings are needed and evaluation frameworks need to
evolve

14. TODAY’S PANELISTS
Reid Spolek
Senior Energy Lead,
Google
Tia Hansen
Senior Program
Manager,
Microsoft
Josh Mandelbaum
City Councilmember,
Des Moines, Iowa

15. Energy strategy
at Google
24/7 Carbon Free Energy
at Google
Reid Spolek

16. Measuring energy from-carbon free sources in every hour of every day
Midnight
Morning
Noon
Afternoon
Evening
January 1
78% carbon-free
April 5
63% carbon-free
September 9
59% carbon-free
December 31
76% carbon-free
66% of our North Carolina data center’s electricity use was matched on an hourly basis with carbon-free sources
0% match with carbon-
free energy
100% match with
carbon-free energy

17. In 2020, Google reached
67% carbon-free energy
globally on an hourly basis.
In the same year, five of our
data centers operated at
90% carbon-free energy.
100% carbon-free energy
0% carbon-free energy
Every hour of Google’s carbon-free
energy sourcing in January 2020

18. Proprietary + Confidential
24/7 Program Principles
1. Time-based Matching: Moving from annual volume-
based goal to hourly matching of load
2. Local Procurement: Moving from global matching of
our demand to local (regional grid)
3. Technology-inclusive: Moving from renewable energy
only to all carbon-free energy (includes nuclear, CCS,
etc.)
4. Additionality: We seek to add new clean energy
projects to the grid through our procurement, but
recognize additionality is a spectrum.
5. The Grid is the Ultimate Goal: The broader goal of
24/7 CFE is to decarbonize the broader electricity grid,
which is why we take Grid CFE into account in our
methodology

19. Round-the-clock clean
electricity supply
In May 2021, Google and AES
announced a first-of-its-kind supply
agreement that will guarantee that
Google’s data centers in Virginia will
operate on 90% carbon-free energy
by 2024.
New clean energy portfolio added to PJM
electricity grid, comprised of wind, solar PV,
battery storage, and run of river hydro.
500 MW
Source: AES Case Study

20. Des Moines, Iowa pledges
24/7 clean electricity by 2035

21. Decarbonizing the grid
Tia Hansen

22. Microsoft sees energy from three perspectives
A consumer
on the grid
A collaborator
in clean energy & grid
An innovator
of energy technology
Large customer with stable,
high-value load and high
average load factor
Dedicated to procuring
100% renewable energy,
investing in grid infrastructure
and being a backup provider
Improving grid reliability
and enabling
environmental efficiencies

23. At Microsoft, we are committed to sustainability
2012 2018 2020 2025 2030 2050
Carbon
neutral
50% 60% 100% Carbon Negative
& Diesel-free
datacenters
Zero Carbon
100/100/0
Removal of all
historical carbon
emitted directly or
through electrical
consumption
Supply of renewable energy

24. IMAGE: FLICKR/MICHAEL MULLER
THANK YOU
wri.org/research/actions-large-energy-buyers-can-take-transform-and-decarbonize-grid