In a beautiful barren stretch of the Scottish Highlands, just south of Inverness, spin 20 brand new 3,300-kilowatt wind turbines. The second these industrial-scale turbines came on stream last month, all Mars UK’s factories and offices became immediately zero carbon. The US confectionary giant negotiated with the UK arm of Eneco, the Dutch utility behind the Moy Wind Farm, to buy 85% of the turbines’ output over the next 10 years. The move follows similar steps in the US, where Mars says its operations are carbon neutral thanks to a deal to buy power from a large-scale wind farm in Mesquite Creek, Texas. The two deals – known generically as renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) – represent a new trend in the drive by big business to go green. Adobe, BT Group, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, Nestlé, Novo Nordisk, Salesforce, and Unilever are just a handful of the large corporations now using the mechanism to meet their ambitions of going fully renewable.
Guardian 20th June 2016 read more »