Wind vs. solar: Corporate America and its renewable energy preferences

Costs for both green power sources have plunged sharply in recent years

Why is Old Sol playing catch-up in the corporate world?

In 2016, U.S. corporations—pressured by customers, investors or regulators to reduce their carbon footprint—bought thousands of megawatts of renewable energy.

But according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, American corporate giants like Amazon, 3M, Microsoft and Google are buying five times as much wind power as solar power.

Why? Head starts and pricing right down to the penny, according to experts contacted by The Guardian.

• Early research and development of turbines was pioneered in the U.S., giving wind a head start;
• The lowest price for a wind contract is about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 3 cents for solar. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that can make a huge difference in a big company’s electricity costs;
• Both forms of renewable energy have become much more affordable in recent years, with wind power costs falling 66% in the past six years compared to solar’s 63% over the past five years.

As for uncertainties around the Trump administration and its views on climate change-influenced business decisions, analysts generally believe those prices have plunged sharply enough to make them competitive.

“A Trump presidency does not lower our expectations for the growth of the corporate renewable-energy market,” Nathan Serota, a clean-energy analyst at BNEF, tells Bloomberg.

For comparison’s sake, here’s a list—courtesy of Bloomberg New Energy Finance—of the top 10 corporate purchasers of renewable energy in 2016:

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