The number of companies buying green energy has hit new levels as renewable energy becomes more affordable.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance found corporations purchased a record 5.4 gigawatts of renewable energy to power their operations in 2017, up more than a fifth from the previous record of 4.4 gigawatts in 2015.
It was also a record year for the Asia Pacific region, with about 1.3 gigawatts of clean energy purchased.
Australia ranked fifth globally for renewable investments, with the country's market valued at $US6.84 billion ($8.54 billion), according to Inframation Deals data.
"In Australia, where corporations signed power purchase agreements for over 400 megawatts in 2017, expensive wholesale power and the availability of renewable energy certificates have increased the economic incentive for locking into relatively cheap renewable electricity prices long-term," BNEF said.
The University of NSW has signed a major power purchase agreement to source solar energy from Maoneng's NSW solar farm, while Telstra, ANZ, Coca-Cola Amatil and The University of Melbourne have partnered to pre-purchase energy generated from what will be Australia's largest wind farm, supporting its construction.
This growth has also been supported by the Renewable Energy Target scheme, which is aimed at increasing the level of renewable energy generation in Australia, making power from clean energy sources more attractive and available.
About 4924 megawatts of the proposed 6532 megawatts of renewable energy capacity that has been outlined under the RET is already under construction or generating energy, with the remainder expected to be completely financed and starting construction in 2018, creating more avenues to source power.
"The growth in corporate procurement, despite political and economic barriers, demonstrates the importance of environmental, social and governance issues for companies," BNEF corporate energy strategy analyst Kyle Harrison said.
"Sustainability and acting sustainably in many instances are even more important, for the largest corporate clean energy buyers around the world, than any savings made on the cost of electricity."
BNEF is forecasting the rapid growth to continue in 2018,
Future growth will be helped by new energy offtake clearing houses designed to allow small to medium-sized businesses source renewable energy, and broaden the scope for power purchase agreements.
Mr Harrison told Bloomberg these small-scale exchanges can "open the door for a lot of smaller companies to enter the space".
With Bloomberg
