Major defense company plans to reduce emissions 46% by 2030

Tier 1 defense industry contractor RTX (formerly Raytheon) signed a deal with Engie North America to purchase 100% renewable energy in its quest to reduce emissions 46% by 2030 from 2019 levels.

The deal involves buying a mix of wind and solar sources through renewable energy certificates as well as direct energy purchases, all originating in the state. The clean energy will reportedly power 12 of its facilities in Texas.

While the companies did not report the dollar value of the deal, they did say RTX would receive 1.5 million MWh of renewable electricity over the next 10 years, reducing the company’s carbon emissions in Texas by 560,000 metric tons of CO2 over the lifetime of the agreement, which is scheduled to run through 2033. RTX’s Raytheon facility in McKinney, Texas is expected to consume more than 55% of the total clean energy procured.

Initially, the deal includes RECs from Engie’s existing Priddy Wind Project for a portion of RTX’s forecast load in 2024. The remainder of its load for 2024 and beyond reportedly will be sourced with electricity and RECs from several Engie renewable electricity projects in Texas, primarily new projects.

California-based Trio (formerly Edison Energy) is RTX’s energy advisor on the Engie deal. Joey Lange, senior managing director at Trio, said the agreement is notable for a number of reasons, including its size and the fact that it involves RECs and direct purchases of electricity. Also important is the fact that it will spur future development of renewable energy projects.

“This specific engagement is a little unique because it’s going to be a mix of already built assets and projects that are not online yet,” Lange told pv magazine USA. “The use of existing generation is going to allow RTX to hit its goals of a 10% reduction in carbon by 2025. The ramping up of new projects will enable it to reach 46% by 2028 and then extend through 2033.”

Lange said Trio’s role is to help its client, always the energy buyer, to achieve its corporate goals with regard to renewable energy and CO2 emissions reductions. He explained that the deal with Engie in Texas worked because of the concentration of RTX facilities there and the fact Engie has a nice combination of a deep bench of projects available and in the development pipeline.

The deal with RTX means that many projects will now go forward sooner rather than later. “Without that off-taker, the developer is not going to get the hundreds of millions of dollars they need to actually build the project,” Lange said.

Although Engie already has many projects both built and in development in Texas. For example, late last year, Engie inaugurated its 250 MW Sun Valley Solar project in Hill County, Texas, which incorporates 100 MWh of battery storage. It also has the 260 MW Sypert Branch solar project under development in Milam County, Texas. In 2022 the company acquired a 6 GW portfolio of late-stage projects across ERCOT, PJM, MISO, and WECC regions. The acquisition included 33 projects, comprised of about 2.7 GW of solar with 700 MW paired storage, and 2.6 GW of standalone battery energy storage.