Default contract length for renewable energy procurement

Bryna Dunn

Vice President

Moseley Architects

LEEDuser Premium Member

10 thumbs up

Project location :

U.S. and Canada

February 5, 2021

Under the definitions of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, there is a statement that reads: "The default contract length for renewable energy procurement is 10 years. Contract lengths less than 10 years may be pro-rated." It is unclear to me, and others I've checked with, what this sentence means and what exactly it applies to (for example, I would assume it does not apply to Tier 1, which has nothing to do with renewable energy procurement).

Can someone explain how this statement relates to how a project team is supposed to ask for quotes and document credit compliance (assuming for Tier 2 and Tier 3)?

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Marcus Sheffer

LEED Fellow

7group / Energy Opportunities

LEEDuser Expert

4454 thumbs up

Sat, 02/06/2021 - 16:27

Hi Bryna! First of all Tier 1 could be attained with a renewable energy procurement contract if a third party owns the system. Under Tier 2 you either sign a 10 year contract (if you can) or you could purchase 10 year's worth all at once (or some sort of derivation of contract term). Under Tier 3 you could also be buying into say a community solar project or some other third party arrangement to buy landfill gas for example. In short I think that it means that if you have any sort of contract (which is likely unless you are purchasing a system outright) it must cover a minimum 10 year term.

Hashir Usman

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 02/19/2021 - 14:39

Hi Marcus, the contract limit is not 15 years now? In the Addenda it shows that for offsite renewable energy procurement, the contract should be of min. 15 years.