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With ESG programs facing political pushback and rollbacks dominating headlines, it’s easy to assume sustainability has slipped down the corporate priority list. But the numbers tell a different story. Corporate climate commitments are often written off as fine print buried in annual reports, but in practice, they represent a powerful force reshaping Canada’s energy landscape. By setting ambitious sustainability targets, Canada’s largest companies have created a massive clean energy opportunity worth billions in investment for wind and solar projects, thousands of new jobs and millions in municipal tax revenues. The catch is that these gains will only materialize in provinces that allow companies to source the renewable power they’ve pledged to use. 

We’ve looked into the numbers, and the demand is going to be massive. Canada’s 100 largest publicly traded companies alone will need 7.7 gigawatts of renewable electricity to meet their climate targets between now and 2040. While that may sound like a distant horizon, more than half of that, 3.9. GW must be secured within the next five years. These targets are not aspirational slogans; they are tied to audited disclosures and investor expectations, not just public relations. Businesses are securing clean electricity because it makes economic sense. While the demand isn’t spread evenly, it is national in scope, with companies in every region looking for ways to buy renewable power. 

The scale of corporate clean power demand goes far beyond these top 100 companies. Hundreds of other companies across Canada have sustainability commitments coming due, and they face ongoing pressure to drive down emissions. But here’s where Canada’s potential hits a wall: most provinces don’t have the policy frameworks to enable this demand. The mechanism that unlocks corporate renewable energy investment, power purchase agreements (PPAs). remains unavailable or severely restricted across most of the country. 

PPAs, particularly virtual PPA’s (vPPAs), are long-term contracts that allow corporations to purchase renewable energy directly from developers. These agreements provide price certainty for buyers while giving developers the financial backing needed to build projects. Critically, vPPAs often enable developers to build larger facilities than the corporate contract alone requires, feeding additional clean power into the provincial grid and benefiting all ratepayers. 

Currently, only three provinces, Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, have functional frameworks for corporate renewable energy procurement, and even these are incomplete. Alberta, once the country’s renewable energy success story with 3.7 GW of capacity contracted through vPPAs since 2019 – spurring $$7.5 billion in private investment, creating over 7,000 jobs, and generating $54 million in municipal tax revenue in 2024 – has seen its momentum collapse. Following a seven-month moratorium in 2023 and new restrictive regulations in 2024, only 58 MW of new deals have been announced in 2024 and 2025, a 98% drop from previous years. Alberta’s competitiveness has eroded just as other provinces begin to open their markets. Ontario has launched a small, limited pilot for corporate procurement but lacks the open, competitive framework needed to meet the 4.2 GW of demand identified - over half of Canada’s total. The remaining provinces and territories offer no practical pathways at all, leaving companies operating there unable to meet their climate goals locally despite a clear willingness to invest. 

This self-imposed barrier needs to be broken down, and luckily, we have the models to do it. From vPPA options to green choice programs, provinces can look to each other and US jurisdictions that have successfully implemented corporate procurement programs. The models are there, and the success speaks for itself. In the United States, 40% of all new renewable energy capacity between 2015 and 2025 was developed through corporate procurement. 

The takeaway for policymakers is simple: Canada’s businesses are ready to build, and the scale rivals past nation-building projects like railways and pipelines. They want to buy clean electricity in the places where they operate, anchoring long-term investment and jobs in Canadian communities. The only question is whether provincial governments will clear the path or stand in the way. Corporate Canada is already doing the work of nation-building; governments just need to let it happen.

This is not a niche environmental agenda. It is a national economic opportunity. If provinces enable corporate PPAs, they won’t just be helping companies check a sustainability box. They’ll be attracting investment, jobs and a wave of new clean energy projects into their province that would otherwise flow elsewhere. With 7.7 GW of renewable energy demand over the next 15 years, most of it by 2030, the demand is here, and the clock is ticking. 

Read more here: https://corporateknights.com/energy/canada-can-quickly-unlock-much-more-corporate-investment-in-renewables/