Read original article in San Diego News.
Solar Developer Silicon Ranch Has Officially Acquired Technology Company clear loop, which was founded by Silicon Ranch founder Philip Bredesen, the former governor of Tennessee. Clearloop continues to operate under its brand and is led by CEO and co-founder Laura Zapata. Both companies are based in Nashville and will share office space at Silicon Ranch’s downtown headquarters. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
The Clearloop acquisition expands Silicon Ranch’s offerings to the growing number of corporate buyers seeking a broader range of options to meet not only their renewable energy goals, but also their decarbonization and broader ESG goals. Clearloop’s mission to clean up the grid in communities that would otherwise be left behind by using tangible, traceable carbon offsets directly links the social benefits to the environmental and economic impact of new renewable energy projects.
“Silicon Ranch’s investment in Clearloop is a great vote of confidence in our team and vision for a tangible climate solution and will strengthen our long-term work with a trusted partner,” said Zapata. “Individually, our companies have pioneered innovations in the renewable energy and carbon markets. Together, we will unlock even more innovation to support companies’ growing climate ambitions and maximize the environmental, economic and social impact of solar energy development for communities across our country. We look forward to delivering on that promise and ensuring that no community is left behind as we strive for a just transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Clearloop places renewable energy projects not only in communities that will reap the most economic benefits from that investment, but also where new utility-scale solar will remove the most carbon from the grid. Clearloop recently broke ground on the country’s first solar farm funded by corporate carbon offsets in Jackson, Tennessee, with the support of established companies such as Intuit and Vista Equity Partners, along with direct-to-consumer brands such as Dropps. and Hello Bello.
“Since the founding of Silicon Ranch, long-term power purchase agreements have fueled the growth of renewable energy use,” said Reagan Farr, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Ranch. “Today, carbon is becoming an increasingly influential driver in corporate power purchasing decisions, creating an opportunity to decarbonize the grid at a faster pace and on a larger scale as we expand the opportunities for more companies to take action. can expand. To that end, we have made great strides with our transformative land management model, Regenerative Energy, and now this partnership with Clearloop enables us to help our enterprise customers offset their environmental footprint with yet another science-based, innovative solution.”
While more than 300 companies have committed to providing their operations with 100% renewable energy, many of these companies are taking the next big step towards zero-zero targets, prompting them to take into account the avoided emissions from their clean energy procurement, rather than the traditional emphasis on counting only the megawatt hour. Specifically, these organizations are trying to clean up their supply chains, which represent their Scope 3 emissions and typically account for about 75% of most companies’ carbon footprints.
The acquisition of Clearloop by Silicon Ranch represents a remarkable break from traditional carbon offset practice. Typically, interests in alternative energy production offsets have been sold to companies through third parties, such as carbon registration brokers. This use of intermediaries with outdated or poorly regulated carbon registers often obscures the source of the offset credit and gives the buyer little to no tangible evidence of impact.
By directly linking new, additional clean energy capacity to the avoided carbon emissions in local communities where the solar projects are built, the Silicon Ranch and Clearloop partnership has the potential to enhance efforts and incentives for climate change mitigation in the United States. States to speed up.
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