Harvard introduced on Wednesday the formation of the Consortium for Local weather Options, a first-of-its-kind renewable vitality collaboration of upper training, healthcare, and cultural establishments, in addition to state and native authorities entities, led by Harvard, Mass Basic Brigham (MGB), and the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT).
The consortium will leverage its members’ collective buying energy to beat market situations that function boundaries to growth of tasks that advance cost-effective renewable vitality and permit for larger-scale funding.
“With these new utility-scale renewable electrical energy tasks, Harvard will buy the equal of one hundred pc of its electrical energy from renewable sources, fulfilling a key element of our strategy to fulfill our purpose to be fossil fuel-neutral by 2026.”
Heather Henriksen, chief sustainability officer
“Investing in new, large-scale renewables marks a big step ahead for Harvard in its dedication to a clear vitality future,” stated Meredith Weenick, govt vice chairman. “By founding the consortium with MIT and MGB, we’re not solely catalyzing the transition to a cleaner grid but in addition demonstrating a collaboration mannequin that may allow quite a lot of nonprofit organizations and municipalities to work collectively to deal with the pressing challenges of local weather change.”
The consortium lately finalized negotiations that may consequence within the growth of 408 megawatts of latest renewable vitality by way of two large-scale, utility-grade tasks — the Huge Elm Photo voltaic in Bell County, Texas, and the Bowman Wind Undertaking in Bowman County, North Dakota. The 200-megawatt Huge Elm Photo voltaic undertaking got here on-line earlier this 12 months, and the 208-megawatt Bowman Wind undertaking is anticipated to come back on-line in 2026. Collectively these tasks will generate clear energy equal to the electrical energy use of 130,000 U.S. properties yearly.
“With these new utility-scale renewable electrical energy tasks, Harvard will buy the equal of one hundred pc of its electrical energy from renewable sources, fulfilling a key element of our strategy to fulfill our purpose to be fossil fuel-neutral by 2026, whereas we concurrently work on the longer-term effort to decarbonize our historic and concrete campus,” defined Heather Henriksen, Harvard’s chief sustainability officer.
Reaching fossil-fuel neutrality by 2026 is a bridging technique to mitigate the damaging impression of fossil fuels on emission ranges and air air pollution whereas the College develops longer-term expertise and infrastructure modifications to get rid of its use of fossil fuels by 2050. Along with buying electrical energy from renewable sources, the College seems to be to hunt larger vitality effectivity and warmth restoration on campus, change fossil-fuel gear on the finish of life, improve its electrical automobile fleet, and discover different reductions of fossil-fuel use.
“There’s loads of scientific proof that fossil fuels are negatively impacting well being, neighborhood stability, and ecosystems around the globe. As Harvard continues on its path to turn out to be a fossil fuel-free campus, it’s vital that the College not solely conduct analysis on easy methods to drive down international emissions and bolster adaptation, however to make use of our buying energy to assist produce cost-effective renewable vitality options at scale,” stated Mike Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Administration at Harvard Enterprise College, college chair of the Enterprise and Setting Initiative at HBS, and co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Sustainability. “The consortium is a superb instance of partaking with the renewable electrical energy markets to broaden their scale and impression.”
The consortium founding members, Harvard, MGB, and MIT, sought alternatives to collaborate with smaller nonprofits and municipalities. This resulted within the partnership with PowerOptions, a nonprofit energy-buying group, enabling town of Cambridge, Beth Israel Lahey, Boston Kids’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute, Tufts College, the Mass. Conference Middle Authority, the Museum of Effective Arts, and WGBH to hitch underneath the PowerOptions umbrella. The consortium is offering PowerOptions members with entry to inexpensive, large-scale renewable vitality purchases that might usually be out of attain for particular person consumers.
The creation of the consortium, supported by Harvard’s management, was led by the Workplace for Sustainability working with college and different key stakeholders. The tasks chosen for funding align with the suggestions and standards set forth by the Fossil Gas-Impartial by 2026 Subcommittee of the College’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability. The consortium vetted greater than 100 potential tasks, finally selecting the Huge Elm Photo voltaic and Bowman Wind tasks from developer Apex Clear Power.
Domestically, the consortium’s power-purchase agreements with the Huge Elm and Bowman tasks will allow its members to speed up progress towards their particular person sustainability objectives in line with native emissions-reduction regulatory targets, whereas concurrently lowering fossil gas emissions at a nationwide scale.
“The places and scale of every undertaking, in two of probably the most carbon-intensive electrical grid areas in the USA, imply that the potential optimistic impression is critical, making a extra sturdy and cleaner grid,” defined Henriksen.
