The Corporate Power Purchase Agreement with EDF Renewables UK will give NatWest 49.9MW of renewable power. Image: Petr Kratochvil (publicdomainpictures.net).
NatWest, has signed a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA) with EDF Renewables UK, which will see the retail and commercial bank benefit from 49.9MW of renewable power.
The renewable power will be supplied to NatWest from Porth Wen Solar Farm in Anglesey, North Wales.
EDF Renewables will also provide power balancing services, forecasting the amount of generation on a half hourly basis, and shaping services to convert variable generation into a firm level of power before being transferred to NatWest’s supplier.
Construction at the 190 acre site has already begun and is expected to be completed in 2023, including biodiversity benefits such as a mile long wildlife corridor as well as wildflower and woodland planting.
“We are delighted to be working with NatWest. This project demonstrates our ability to develop solar in the UK through innovative routes to market, to provide solutions for our customers in terms of low cost renewable energy whilst helping to de-carbonise the UK electricity system,” said Matthieu Hue, CEO at EDF Renewables UK.
Director of climate change at NatWest Group, James Close added, “As a bank we have a responsibility to ensure that our buildings are powered by renewable electricity to help reduce the direct carbon emissions created by our own operations. Having already reduced our direct own operational carbon footprint by 46% against a 2019 baseline, our renewable electricity consumption is currently 97% globally and we plan to achieve 100% for our direct own operations by 2025.”
Late last year, NatWest also helped finance three solar farms by the global renewable company, Low Carbon, which will have a combined capacity of 75MW once developed.