Spain. Telefónica announced that 100% of electricity consumption in the Iberian nation is already renewable, making its network the cleanest in the sector in terms of carbon. The company explained that this achievement has been achieved thanks to the purchase of this energy with a guarantee of origin. Since 2015, CO2 emissions have been reduced by 81% as a result.
"One of our great strategic levers is excellent connectivity. And excellence is also about connecting in the most environmentally beneficial way. Our commitment to energy efficiency and renewable electricity is not only compatible with grid expansion, innovation and quality of service, but also helps us to be more competitive", explains Joaquín Mata, Director of Operations, Systems and IT of Telefónica Spain.
Other countries where Telefónica operates such as Germany and the United Kingdom had already achieved this milestone. Thanks to the company's Renewable Energy Plan, 47% of its electricity consumption worldwide comes from renewable sources, which is equivalent to the average annual consumption of more than 763,000 homes and avoids 770,026 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Now the challenge is to reach 100% by 2030.
This Plan will bring the group a potential saving of 6% in the energy bill in 2020 and up to 26% in 2030, and will prevent around 1.5 million tons of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere each year in 2030.
The Telefónica Renewable Energy Plan is based on four lines of action:
- purchase of renewable electricity with guarantee of origin;
- long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs);
- bilateral agreements of shorter duration
- self-generation
The Plan, adapted to the different markets in which Telefónica operates and the regulations in force in each, manages to reduce operating costs and reconcile business growth with a sustainable strategy.
The goal is to have the best network, which allows to offer excellent connectivity, not only in technological terms but also in terms of efficiency and environmental sustainability
This is what Telefónica's global commitments on Energy and Climate Change for the period 2015-2020 seek, endorsed by the Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative for contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions established in the Paris Agreement:
- Reduce energy consumption per unit of traffic by 50%, a goal achieved in 2017, two years in advance.
- Begin to decouple business growth from greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing them by 30% in absolute terms by 2020 and 50% by 2030.
- Save 90 million euros for energy efficiency projects.
- Bet on renewable energies as a sustainable source for the business, using 50% of electricity from renewable sources in 2020 and 100% in 2030.
- With Telefónica there are already eight companies in the telco sector that are endorsed by STBi and a total of 412 firms have committed to set emission reduction targets. In the last year alone, the number of companies with validated scientific targets has doubled, from 43 in April 2017 to 106 today.
In countries such as Costa Rica and Uruguay, the electricity consumed by Telefónica is more than 90% renewable, thanks to the high development of these technologies in these countries.
PPAs are the preferred course of action in Latin America, where Telefónica Mexico's agreement for the electricity supply with two photovoltaic solar power plants that will come into operation in mid-2018 and will supply the operator for 15 years stands out. This will account for about 50% of your annual electricity consumption. It is planned to subscribe new PPAs in other markets where regulation allows it, such as Argentina or Chile.
Telefónica is a member of RE100, a global and collaborative initiative of influential companies committed to 100% renewable electricity, and whose objective is to massively increase the demand for this energy to favor its development on a global scale.
