Ever.green Partners with Watershed to Bring New Solar Plant to the Texas Grid in First Fixed-Price VPPA

Ever.green is excited to partner with Watershed, the leading enterprise climate platform to launch the first fixed-price virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA). The long-term commitments of Watershed customers including Samsara, Stripe, and TaskUs will help build a new solar plant in Laredo, Texas.

The solar plant enabled by this VPPA is located for maximum climate impact. Texas’ grid has high emissions intensity owing to a reliance on coal and gas, meaning Watershed customers will have a greater carbon reduction impact for their dollars. The solar energy produced by this plant means over 13,000 tons of CO2 will be avoided every year—equivalent to taking nearly 3,000 gas-powered cars off the road each year. This partnership is a blueprint for many more projects funded collectively by companies raising the bar on achieving their sustainability goals. 

“We’re working with Ever.green to develop the tools that will launch us into the climate economy by enabling meaningful climate action by companies of all sizes. This fixed-price VPPA lets Watershed customers lock in years of renewable energy production that would not exist without their commitments,” said Watershed co-founder Taylor Francis. “What’s more, as corporate offsetting comes under intensified regulatory and media scrutiny, VPPA customers will have assurance that they're funding only the highest-quality projects.”

Traditional VPPAs place the financial risk of volatile electricity prices with the buyers, which limits accessibility to the largest corporations that have dedicated teams, a deep understanding of power markets, and the ability to make long-term financial commitments. The new fixed-price VPPA developed by Ever.green and Watershed is a simpler structure that allows companies to fix their long-term costs. This eliminates exposure to the volatile pricing inherent to a traditional VPPA, while still increasing a project’s likelihood of full financing by lowering the project’s overall financial risk.

“This is the gold standard for addressing scope 2 emissions. The RECs obtained through a VPPA represent clean energy from a project that happened because of their purchase: true additionality,” said Ever.green co-founder, Michael Leggett. “As the world’s leading companies double down on ambitious climate goals, we’re making it easy for any company, regardless of size or sector, to fulfill those commitments toward a clean grid.”

The proposed project would be built by Big Sun Solar, a prominent solar developer based in Texas. With an expected 40% tax credit, the project is additionally supported by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and is an early example of how the IRA’s tax credits will help accelerate the transition to the climate economy. These transferable tax credits present yet another opportunity where companies can participate, and even profit, from helping build new projects. Ever.green is building the first tax credit marketplace and offers tools to help developers maximize and sell the tax credits on their projects.

About Watershed: Watershed is the enterprise climate platform. Leading companies like Walmart, BlackRock, Airbnb, Stripe, and Klarna use the software to run end-to-end climate programs with quantifiable results. Watershed delivers granular, audit-grade carbon measurement; one-click disclosure and reporting; and real emissions reduction—all in a single, intuitive, enterprise-grade software platform. Watershed customers have access to an exclusive marketplace of scientifically vetted, high-additionality carbon removal projects and high-quality offsets; in-house climate and policy expertise; and ongoing support throughout their climate journey. For more information, please visit watershed.com.

About Ever.green: Ever.green enables businesses of all sizes to join the renewable energy movement, by helping companies big and small fund new solar projects through long-term contracts for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and a marketplace for transferable clean energy tax credits. Ever.green’s founders, Cris Eugster and Michael Leggett, and their team of energy, regulatory, and product experts are dedicated to accelerating the transition to renewable energy by bringing new capital to the table. For more on Ever.green’s portfolio of products, visit ever.green.