Renewable Energy Procurement Software: Market Shifts and the Next Wave of Innovation

Introductions 

Sam Cotterall: I’m Sam Cotterall, Director of Client Enablement at Verse. I’ve spent over a decade in energy — starting in DC focused on energy and transportation policy, then seven years with Bloomberg New Energy Finance focused on the energy transition, and most recently as a senior consultant with Schneider Electric’s Renewable Energy and Carbon Advisory team before joining Verse. Today I’m joined by Gus Brewer from Verdantixs, whose firm recently published a Smart Innovators report on renewable energy procurement software that we’re honored to be featured in. 

Gus Brewer: Thanks, Sam. I’m an industry analyst in the net zero and energy transition team at Verdantixs, an independent market research and advisory firm specializing in sustainability, energy management, and related software markets. I was the lead author on our Smart Innovators report looking at renewable energy procurement software, which assessed 12 leading and emerging vendors across capabilities like market access, risk forecasting, data management, and verification. It’s great to be here to share some of those insights. 

Why Renewable Energy Procurement Is Now a Core Business Function 

Gus Brewer: Data from our recent Verdantixs Decarbonization Global Corporate Survey, which gathered responses from over 350 sustainability leaders, shows that more than 80% of firms view renewable energy procurement as an important priority in the next 12 months. Two or three years ago, that number would have looked very different. What we’re seeing is a clear shift from aspirational sustainability commitments to real implementation — and renewable energy sits at the center of that transition. It’s no longer a secondary measure. It’s becoming central to how firms plan, finance, and operationalize their decarbonization strategies. 

Five Forces Shaping Corporate Renewable Energy Procurement Decisions

Gus Brewer: Five key dynamics are currently driving how organizations approach renewable energy procurement and energy management. The first is energy price volatility. Energy management has become a financial metric — something that requires active, ongoing attention rather than a once-a-year renewable energy procurement exercise. European gas prices increased tenfold from 2019 levels at their peak following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and price volatility has had tangible impacts on corporate financial planning globally. 

Gus Brewer: The second is grid constraints and instability. As renewable generation grows, many regions are experiencing congestion, interconnection delays, and reliability challenges. We’ve already seen major outages across southern Europe — Spain, Portugal, and France — and these events are occurring with increasing frequency. 

Gus Brewer: Third is regulatory pressure. Firms continue to face requirements around energy performance, emissions disclosure, and renewable sourcing. Despite some regulatory pushback over the past year, many of these mandates remain in place, particularly in the EU. 

Gus Brewer: Fourth is the internal and external pressure to decarbonize. Net zero targets are still very much alive for a large number of companies, and their customers and investors are demanding tangible progress. 

Gus Brewer: Fifth — and increasingly prominent — is energy resilience and security. Geopolitical events and extreme weather have demonstrated how critical diversified, reliable energy supply is. This has elevated energy resilience to a board-level priority for many organizations. 

Gus Brewer: Taken together, these forces are driving a broad shift from passive renewable energy procurement — thinking about energy once or twice a year — to a much more proactive and continuous stance. Renewable energy procurement sits at the core of that transition. 

The Complexity of PPAs — and Why Software Is Filling the Gap 

Gus Brewer: Power purchase agreements have become a central mechanism for corporates to source renewable energy through direct procurement from developers. They offer long-term price stability and a clear link to new renewable capacity. But in practice, only a small number of mature firms are truly equipped to manage them effectively in-house. There are four primary sources of complexity. 

Gus Brewer: Market access and scalability: PPAs have historically been designed for large energy buyers with predictable consumption and the financial resources to commit to long-term agreements. That structure excludes smaller or less experienced firms. Risk management: long-term exposure to price, generation, and counterparty risk requires advanced modeling and oversight that most organizations simply don’t have internally. Tracking and accounting: firms managing multiple PPAs across different regions struggle to maintain accurate, consolidated data and verify that contracts are performing as agreed. And expertise: commercial and legal knowledge is essential but scarce. Without a dedicated in-house procurement team, it’s nearly impossible to manage these contracts without significant external support for renewable energy procurement. 

Gus Brewer: This is precisely why software is becoming so important in the renewable energy procurement market. Five or ten years ago, PPA management was primarily a services and consulting function. Today, software is increasingly taking over the analytical and operational work of renewable energy procurement — reducing the cost and time associated with external consulting and enabling organizations to bring more of that expertise in-house. 

PPA Market Growth 

Gus Brewer: The scale of growth in corporate PPA activity over the last decade is remarkable. In 2017, firms contracted 6.5 gigawatts of renewable capacity through PPAs globally. By 2023, that figure had reached 46 gigawatts — a sevenfold increase in eight years. Our energy transition survey data also shows that firms plan to increase renewable energy procurement spend on off-site renewables by 34% over the next five years. PPAs have become a mainstream instrument for corporate renewable energy procurement, and we expect that growth to continue. 

Policy Shifts: US, EU, and the GHG Protocol 

Gus Brewer: The policy environment is diverging sharply between the US and Europe, with ssignificant implications for renewable energy procurement strategy. 

Gus Brewer: In the US, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act represents the most significant policy shift in recent years. The key changes: a shortened eligibility window for clean energy tax credits, requiring construction to begin by July 4, 2026, and projects to be in service by December 31, 2027. Stricter Foreign Entity of Concern restrictions that could remove established suppliers from certain projects. One partial positive: accelerated tax depreciation allowing developers to deduct the full cost of clean energy assets in year one rather than over five years, which improves near-term project cash flow. The likely impacts include a slowdown in new capacity buildout post-2027, short-term bottlenecks as developers race to qualify projects before the deadline, and upward pressure on domestic energy prices as capacity growth slows. 

Sam Cotterall: We’re only three months into the post-OBBB world and the impact is already significant. For organizations with established clean energy programs — those that have signed PPAs before and have internal expertise — this is a call to action. The supply of tax-credit-eligible projects is shrinking as demand accelerates, and we’re already seeing PPA strike price inflation as a result. Companies that were in the middle of a procurement cycle or considering their first VPPA are moving fast. 

Sam Cotterall: For organizations that were on the fence — those with 2030 goals who hadn’t yet felt urgency — some are making the decision to go to market now, either alone or through procurement cohorts. We’re seeing more aggregation activity than I’ve seen at any point in my career. Industries and supply chain groups are forming cohorts to collectively go to market, sharing credit exposure and renewable energy procurement expertise. It’s a genuine silver lining from the policy change — organizations that wouldn’t have pursued renewable energy procurement independently are finding a path forward together. 

Gus Brewer: In contrast, the EU’s policy direction is strongly supportive of renewable energy expansion. The revised Renewable Energy Directive raises the EU’s renewable target to 40.5% by 2030. The REPowerEurope initiative combines policy reform, funding, and infrastructure investment to accelerate solar, wind, and storage deployment. Proposed electricity market reforms aim to improve consumer protection and industrial competitiveness. And the Affordable Energy Action Plan — developed in response to the energy security crisis following the Ukraine invasion — is focused on stable frameworks and lower industrial energy costs. Collectively, these create a much more favorable environment for corporate renewable energy procurement: lower policy risk, clearer frameworks, and a growing market. Companies that completed their US procurement journeys in the 2018 to 2022 period are increasingly turning to Europe, and the current US policy environment is likely to accelerate that trend. 

Gus Brewer: The third major policy development to watch is the proposed update to the GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidance, which is currently going through technical working groups and public consultation. There are three key proposed changes. First, narrower geographic boundaries — requiring firms to match renewable energy procurement more closely to the location of consumption, rather than matching across regions or continents. Second, hourly accounting — shifting from annual matching to hourly matching, which requires significantly more data and verification. Third, the use of residual mix factors that exclude already-claimed electricity, which would likely result in higher, more fossil-fuel-heavy emissions factors for firms that rely on broad-based certificate purchases. These changes are aimed at improving the credibility and accuracy of renewable energy claims and reducing the kind of double-counting and weakly-grounded claims that have undermined confidence in other environmental markets. For firms, the implication is clear: more granular data, stronger tracking systems, and better governance will be required to maintain compliance and credibility. These remain proposed changes, but the direction of travel is clear. 

Emerging Risks in Renewable Energy Management 

Gus Brewer: As the market matures, new risks are also emerging that organizations need to be aware of. Market cannibalization is increasingly significant — as renewables flood certain regions, the market revenues that PPAs earn during generation hours are compressed. We’re seeing this clearly in high-penetration markets like California, Spain, Germany, and the UK. Regulatory uncertainty, as illustrated by the diverging US and EU policy environments, creates real planning challenges. Integration and data fragmentation remain a persistent issue — firms relying on disconnected systems lack the full-portfolio visibility needed for good decisions. And there’s a consistent mismatch between ambition and capability: firms often have sophisticated sustainability goals but lack the tools to execute on them. The 24/7 carbon-free energy matching goal is a good example — two or three years ago, corporate demand for hourly matching existed but the software to support it didn’t. The market has now caught up. 

Sam Cotterall: The uncertainty and time pressure we’re seeing in the US reinforces the need for dynamic, real-time market analysis. The ability to run a discounted cash flow model on an updated renewable energy procurement strike price in seconds — rather than waiting weeks for an external advisor — is genuinely valuable right now. Organizations need to be able to quickly evaluate offers, model scenarios, and understand what changing market conditions mean for their specific portfolio. That kind of analytical speed and precision in renewable energy procurement is increasingly a competitive advantage, not just a nice-to-have. 

The Verdantix Smart Innovators Report: Key Findings 

Gus Brewer: Our Smart Innovators report assessed 12 leading and emerging vendors in the renewable energy procurement software market. We evaluated them through product demonstrations and scored them against criteria including market access, risk forecasting, data management, tracking and verification, and stakeholder alignment capabilities. Here’s what stood out. 

Gus Brewer: First, the vendor landscape is still fragmented. We categorized vendors into three groups: PPA software, energy attribute certificate management, and broader energy management software. Most vendors specialize in one or two of these areas. That means most organizations currently need multiple tools to get a complete picture. However, a small number of vendors — Verse, NLX, and Schneider Electric among them — are working across all three areas, and we expect that convergence to accelerate as PPA and EAC management becomes more central to corporate energy strategy. 

Gus Brewer: The six most significant areas of innovation we found were: data quality and consistency — leading vendors ingest generation, consumption, and certificate data automatically, without manual uploads; market access and price transparency — the best platforms connect buyers and sellers, improve market visibility, and reduce barriers to entry across multiple markets and geographies; actionable intelligence and scenario modeling — the ability to run multiple scenarios and strategies to forecast cost, carbon, and financial outcomes at the click of a button, work that previously took consultants weeks; AI and large language model integration — LLM-powered tools that can answer questions about complex energy data and generate reports that would previously have required significant analyst time; and integration with existing systems — platforms that connect renewable energy data to financial, ESG, and operational systems to support holistic decision-making rather than sitting in a silo. 

Gus Brewer: The firms that are leading in this space are moving from manual, fragmented processes to connected, intelligent, and increasingly predictive platforms. That shift is enabling organizations to manage their renewable energy procurement portfolios with a level of rigor and responsiveness that simply wasn’t possible a few years ago. 

Best Practices and What to Look for in Renewable Energy Procurement Software

Gus Brewer: Before choosing a procurement model or a software platform, organizations should clarify their renewable energy procurement strategy. What is the primary goal — cost reduction, decarbonization impact, additionally, or a combination? That answer shapes which procurement mechanisms make sense. Then select the right renewable energy procurement model: PPA, green tariff, or EAC purchases serve different needs. Build in flexibility — renewable energy procurement conditions are changing rapidly and your strategy needs to be adaptable. And align stakeholders from the outset across finance, sustainability, procurement, facilities, and operations. 

Gus Brewer: For software specifically, there are five things to look for. Market coverage: access to multiple regions and contract types. Risk analysis tools: robust forecasting and scenario modeling capabilities. Automated data ingestion: this is effectively non-negotiable — manual data uploads create errors and slow everything down. AI capabilities that generate real-time insights, not just buzzword compliance. And integration with existing systems so that renewable energy data informs core business decisions rather than existing in a separate silo. 

Verse Platform Demo: Arya 

Sam Cotterall: Verse is an energy cost intelligence platform. Rather than treating renewable energy procurement as a standalone activity, we bring load data, supply agreements, market data, forecasting, and portfolio management together in one place — so organizations can see their full energy picture and make better decisions across all of it. The platform is called Arya. I’ll walk through the capabilities most relevant to VPPA management. 

Sam Cotterall: The foundation is data integration. Arya connects via API to utility systems, asset telemetry, market data providers, and certification registries — pulling in real-time generation data, pricing, weather, and contract terms automatically. For global portfolios, assets across North America and Europe are normalized into a single view with currency conversion. That eliminates the spreadsheet work of maintaining exchange rates and manually reconciling data from multiple sources. 

Sam Cotterall: For performance tracking, the platform provides what we call a best available estimate — a machine-learning-powered backcast that uses actual weather data, real-time market pricing, and your specific contract structure to reconstruct how an asset performed even without invoice data. Looking forward, Verse uses a proprietary short-term forecasting methodology. The standard industry approach pairs a developer-provided 8,760-hour generation profile — built before the project was constructed — with a fundamental power price forecast that is designed for 15-year NPV analysis and updated roughly twice a year. That approach is appropriate for long-term investment decisions. It is not appropriate for projecting next month’s cash flow. Verse’s model updates the expected generation profile monthly using machine learning, and incorporates near-term market signals — natural gas futures, weather forecasts, historical price patterns at the specific settlement point — to produce a much more responsive short-term forecast. You can track how forecasts evolve over time, compare any two forecast vintages side by side, and understand exactly what changed and why. 

Sam Cotterall: Invoice validation is fully automated. When a developer submits a monthly invoice, Arya ingests it and checks every interval against market data and contract terms — identifying pricing errors, duplicate hours, missing intervals, incorrect settlement point prices, and contract term misapplications. In a live example, the platform identified an error where the PPA price was applied incorrectly over two days of a monthly invoice, resulting in more than $8,000 owed back to the buyer. That kind of error is easy to miss in a manual review process and easy to catch with automated validation. 

Sam Cotterall: Beyond data errors, the platform compares invoice generation against modeled expected generation for each asset. If the asset was generating significantly below what weather and resource conditions would predict, that’s a signal to investigate — either a data reporting issue or an operational issue worth raising with the developer. You can drill into any interval, see the price environment at that moment, and understand exactly what was happening with generation and settlement at a granular level. 

Q&A 

Audience Question: How do procurement cohorts work in practice, and where can organizations find them? 

Sam Cotterall: Cohorts bring together multiple organizations to aggregate demand, share credit exposure, and collectively navigate the renewable energy procurement process. The most effective ones tend to form around supply chain relationships — a lead organization anchoring a group — or around industry associations. Walmart’s gigaton PPA program is an early and well-known example of the supply chain model. The CHARM initiative in medtech and healthcare is a good example of an industry association model. The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council and SEIA are both good resources for finding existing cohorts or understanding how to organize one. The key challenge with cohorts is coordination — multiple stakeholders with different requirements and risk tolerances. Software that can help educate all participants and align them on a shared analytical framework is genuinely valuable in that context. 

Audience Question: What is the latest on the GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidance update timeline? 

Sam Cotterall: The technical working group’s latest draft is currently going out for public comment — a 60-day period during which anyone can review and respond. After that, the working group will incorporate feedback before finalizing. We don’t have a firm finalization date, but the process is moving. Organizations with 2030 goals that involve Scope 2 reductions should be watching this closely, as the proposed shift to hourly matching and narrower geographic boundaries could materially change how existing and future PPAs count toward those targets. 

Audience Question: What is the single most important software capability for energy management? 

Gus Brewer: It’s difficult to single out one capability, but if I had to choose a starting point, it would be data ingestion and management. Without the ability to automatically ingest accurate, timely data across generation, consumption, certificates, and market prices, everything else — forecasting, scenario modeling, invoice validation — is built on a shaky foundation. That’s the non-negotiable baseline. 

Sam Cotterall: I’d build on that with forecast confidence. The standard methodology — a static 8,760-hour profile paired with a fundamental forecast — is a reasonable tool for evaluating a 15-year NPV at the time of signing. It’s the wrong tool for managing near-term cash flows and communicating monthly performance to finance. The organizations that managed 2024’s volatility best were the ones with dynamic forecasts that updated as market conditions changed — so they could communicate what to expect before the invoice arrived, not after. That capability, built on top of solid data, is what separates proactive renewable energy procurement management from reactive damage control. 

Closing 

Amber Artrip: Thank you to Gus and the entire Verdantixs team for the depth of research that went into the Smart Innovators report. A link to a free version of the report will be included in our follow-up email. And thank you to Sam and to everyone who joined today. If you’d like to see the Verse platform in more depth, visit ww.verse.inc to request a renewable energy procurement demo.