Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is fed up with corporations exaggerating their environmental credentials.
“There’s far an excessive amount of greenwashing within the system,” he mentioned in a current interview. For Scaringe, it’s all too simple for a corporation to obfuscate the supply of its energy consumption, particularly when it doesn’t truly create any new capability for renewable vitality. And shoppers aren’t discerning sufficient to inform the distinction.
“That is simply so conceptually complicated,” he mentioned, making a transparent distinction between corporations that purchase renewable vitality to cowl their very own emissions whereas additionally creating new capability and those that need to “pay a teeny little incremental quantity extra to get the flexibility to pat ourselves on the again and say we’re utilizing renewable vitality.”
Scaringe places Rivian firmly within the class of corporations that not solely need to get rid of their very own carbon emissions but additionally assist create new capability for renewable vitality to be created. To that finish, he’s in Kentucky on Tuesday to announce Rivian’s assist for a brand new photo voltaic vitality heart to be constructed on high of a former coal mine.
Situated on high of a ridge in japanese Kentucky, the Starfire mine at one level noticed lots of of miners hauling tens of millions of tons of coal every year. However quickly, it is going to be the location of an enormous photo voltaic farm with the purpose of making 800 megawatts (MW) of vitality — sufficient to energy 160,000 houses every year. BrightNight, a Florida-based photo voltaic firm, can be constructing a 10-mile transmission line to allow a further one gigawatt of energy capability for the longer term.
Rivian might be an offtaker for the challenge, or a purchaser of the ability generated from the location. The EV firm shouldn’t be straight funding the challenge, which is estimated to price $1 billion, however it’s dedicated to purchasing 100MW of vitality as a part of a digital energy buy settlement (PPA) — digital as a result of the clear vitality gained’t be flowing straight into Rivian’s electrical vans, SUVs, or vans, and even the corporate’s company workplaces or factories. Nonetheless, Rivian says the vitality will assist “energy as much as 450 million miles of renewable driving yearly.”
Rivian might be an offtaker for the challenge, or a purchaser of the ability generated from the location
Digital PPAs have gotten an more and more common type of clear vitality dedication for American corporations. In 2021, for instance, firms purchased a file 31.1GW of fresh vitality, equal to greater than 10 p.c of all new renewable vitality capability added worldwide that 12 months. Over half of the agreements got here from tech giants, together with Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
In line with Scaringe, with out these PPAs, many of those renewable vitality initiatives wouldn’t have the ability to get off the bottom. Rivian might not be financing the photo voltaic challenge straight, however it’s guaranteeing that there might be a marketplace for the vitality when the photovotalic cells come on-line. “If corporations aren’t making the dedication to buy the ability, which then makes the challenge financeable, these initiatives gained’t occur,” he mentioned.
Rivian isn’t the primary automaker to commit to purchasing clear vitality by a digital PPA. Stellantis signed a 400MW settlement with DTE Power in Michigan late final 12 months, whereas Mercedes-Benz mentioned it might purchase 140MW from an offshore wind farm within the Baltic Sea.
Digital PPAs are “simply scalable and allow consumers to fulfill a big portion of their sustainability objectives with a comparatively small variety of offers,” the Rocky Mountain Institute wrote in a 2019 report.
In line with Scaringe, with out these PPAs, many of those renewable vitality initiatives wouldn’t have the ability to get off the bottom
Rivian has been on the forefront of the controversy over electrical automobiles and local weather change, criticizing its rivals as being “far off monitor” on decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions in a method that may meet targets set by the Paris settlement. The corporate authored a report earlier this 12 months, together with Polestar, arguing that EVs alone wouldn’t be sufficient to restrict world temperature will increase. The auto business would wish to play a stronger function in rising renewable vitality in energy grids and decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions throughout its total provide chain.
However the firm nonetheless must go additional. Rivian doesn’t share its emissions information with CDP, a nonprofit that evaluates corporations’ environmental reporting. Ford, for instance, has garnered “A” grades for its local weather change disclosures since 2019, whereas Tesla earned “F” grades. There’s a rising refrain of environmental advocates demanding extra transparency from firms across the full image of their carbon emissions.
Picture by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
Scaringe mentioned that Rivian is working towards “Scope 3 neutrality,” which means it has the purpose of eliminating all of its oblique emissions from its provide chain and the lifecycle of the EVs it produces. A standard criticism of EVs is that they’re solely as clear as their energy supply — in different phrases, if an EV is charging from a grid that primarily will get its energy from a polluting supply, like coal, then it might probably’t declare to be a really clear mode of transportation.
Rivian is focusing on its Scope 1 emissions, from its manufacturing facility and company workplaces, partially by placing up a wind turbine at its plant in Regular, Illinois. Scope 2 emissions, from its electrical energy use, must be dealt with by the creation of “an upstream provide that can assist offset” the emissions created by Rivian’s suppliers, Scaringe mentioned.
However “90 p.c” of Rivian’s emissions are Scope 3 — its fleet of electrical R1T vans, R1S SUVs, and EDV supply vans. And people emissions are why the corporate is agreeing to purchase 100MW of vitality from the photo voltaic farm in Kentucky, along with different PPAs. A digital energy settlement for the corporate’s present and future clients, which Scaringe estimates will proceed to develop as the corporate’s manufacturing capabilities mature.
“We create the availability that offsets the utilization of our collective fleet and the fleet because it grows, it turns into a giant shopper of vitality,” he mentioned. “Just a few years from now, the carpark of Rivians might be consuming extra vitality than the whole nation of Eire.”
