Corporate PPAs get shorter as buyers refuse to lock 15-year solar prices
The 15-year green contract is losing friends.
Energy and Infrastructure Correspondent
Solar farm at sunset
DENVER — The 15-year corporate PPA was a gift to project finance. It is becoming a hard sell. Treasurers said they will still buy clean power. They will not lock a mid-2010s-style price for a decade and a half while panel, rate, and load assumptions keep moving.
Developers are answering with merchant tails, collars, and hybrid storage that can be re-contracted. The capital stack is getting more creative because the offtake is getting less obedient.
That is healthier than a market built on one kind of contract. It is also slower. Some projects will wait. Some will not be built.
David Chen
Energy and Infrastructure Correspondent
Covers power markets, nuclear restarts, and the grid constraints around AI campuses.
