A recent news item about Sembcorp and Saint Gobain signing a PPA for renewable power purchase stood out - at least to me - for two reasons:
One, it is for a pretty large capacity (33 MW) of renewable power for a fairly long period (25 years). Almost all of it will be from solar & wind (as Sembcorp that's what Sembcorp has), we are looking at about 1,500,000 MWh or about 1.5 TWh. Taking an acceptable emissions reduction of 0.5 Kg CO2/kWh from solar power (it is almost the same for wind power too), we are talking about total emissions reduction of about 0.75 million tons of CO2 saved over the PPA period. I'd say that's significant for one firm, and can indeed go a significant distance towards supporting Saint-Gobain's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and 100% green power by 2027-28.
Two, it would be sourced from local sources. Now, it is not clear what is meant by local sources, but I presume that Sembcorp will be transacting these with their wind and solar power plants in the respective states. Saint Gobain has about 25 manufacturing sites in India with a heavy concentration in the state of Tamil Nadu. Localization of green power generation is important too, as it means local employment - pertinent to point out that India's renewable energy employment is expected to grow from about 1 lakh currently to over 10 lakhs by 2030, a 10 fold growth in just eight years.
