Starbucks signs wind and solar purchase agreements in first-of-its-kind corporate deal

Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. The company was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. Today, the company operates over 30,000 locations worldwide.

What Happened?

The Coffee giant has struck a first-of-its-kind clean energy deal that will generate enough power to run 3,000 of its stores by 2021.

To pull it off, Starbucks worked with green energy marketplace LevelTen Energy to purchase stakes in two solar and one wind project across North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Why this Matters

“Starbucks is setting an important precedent in the corporate energy procurement space by demonstrating how a single offtaker can safely and easily procure shares of renewable energy from a variety of new wind and solar projects,” said Bryce Smith, LevelTen’s CEO, in a statement.

The LevelTen deal represents a new approach to clean energy investments. Rather than signing up as the sole purchaser of electricity, Starbucks owns a fraction of several projects that together create a portfolio.

The new model “opens the door for many new buyers to cost-effectively source smaller amounts of renewable energy,” Patrick Leonard, an energy manager for Starbucks, said in a statement.