Wind-PPA as renewable energy production?

Community energy systems must be owned or leased for a minimum of 10 years in order to achieve EAc: Renewable Energy Generation. A power purchase agreement would not be considered ownership or a lease.

If seeking project-specific approval for an alternate path that would justify that a PPA should qualify as "equivalent" to ownership or lease, please use the GBCI Certification Contact Us page with the specific details of your project, including a narrative justifying why this agreement should be considered equivalent. Note that PPAs are already rewarded under EAc: Green Power and Carbon Offsets, so any alternative path approved would require justification that the project's PPA meets the intent of EAC: Renewable Energy Generation (as opposed to the intent of EAc: Green Power and Carbon Offsets). Note that this alternate path for community long-term PPAs (if approved based on a project-specific inquiry) would apply only to EAc: Renewable Energy Generation, and would not extend to credit for renewable systems within EAc: Optimize Energy Performance. 

With regards to your question about Utility Service Area, please note the following LEED Interpretation 10469, which clarifies this topic: 

Inquiry

LEED v4 BD+C EA credit Renewable Energy Production requires eligible community renewable systems to be located within the same utility service area as the facility claiming the use. However, the power utility servicing our project does not publish details showing its service areas or supply areas. How should we define utility service area in the absence of published data from the utility?

Ruling

If a single utility serves an area larger than one county or municipality, and the utility does not publish details related to subdivided “service areas”, “service territories” or “supply areas,” the “utility service area” may be defined as either:

(a) A radius within 25 miles (40 km) of the LEED project. 
OR 
(b) The county or municipality where the project is located.

Hey Gail - so what is the nature of the difference between a PPA and a lease that makes a PPA not equivalent to a lease? As I understand them they are very similar and their application is usually a matter of the scale of the system.

(Late to the game here)

Gail - I second Marcus's question. What about the onsite PPA? We've always allowed them so long as equivalent RECs have been retained. Why should, say, a solar farm that is a PPA on town owned land not count toward a new school the town is building? Why should it make a difference where it is?

On the second point, the service area, apparently I missed that interpretation when it came through LSC. I always understood that to mean the grid areas that Energy Star uses to set emission factors.  And LEED really ought to look at that requirement and consider eliminating it. If I put my renewable project on a dirtier part of the grid  I should get more credit for it, not less.