The United Nation’s 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact defines it as meeting every kilowatt-hour of a company’s electricity consumption with carbon-free electricity sources, every hour of every day, everywhere. In other words, 24/7 CFE, or hourly matching, is the end state of a fully decarbonised electricity system.
In our previous article, we deep dived into this procurement approach, with its opportunities and challenges for consumers as well as for the energy system at large. Since then, there have been developments, and in this article we will explore the key players within the growing ecosystem of 24/7 CFE, as well as understand some of the practical steps buyers and suppliers can undertake in order to achieve hourly matching, as shown in our new study with EY.
The Key Actors of the 24/7 CFE ecosystem
Hourly matching is an emerging ecosystem today. To become mainstream, however, more actors must get involved. We grouped them into three key categories:
Energy suppliers
Let’s begin with the suppliers of 24/7 CFE, namely utilities. Utilities are key players when it comes to making 24/7 CFE a reality, as they invest in various clean and renewables energy technologies, improve infrastructure, and contribute to work on solutions for customers who wish to embark upon the 24/7 journey towards deep decarbonisation. Other suppliers active on hourly matched tariffs are retailers such as Octopus Energy, Good Energy and Smartest Energy.
Several European utilities are getting involved in hourly matching. Here are a few examples.
Engie
A French multinational electric utility company, Engie is significantly involved in 24/7 CFE initiatives around the globe. Engie has been expanding its renewable energy portfolio, investing in energy storage solutions, and developing smart grid technologies to ensure continuous carbon-free energy supply to its customers. The company is also collaborating with technology companies to enhance real-time energy management.
For instance, back in 2021 Engie signed a 3-year 24/7 carbon-free energy supply agreement in Germany – a first-of-its-kind in Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Engie assembled and negotiated an energy portfolio of renewable power (solar and wind) to ensure that all of the firms’ German operations are 80% carbon-free by 2022. This amounted to a grand total of 140 MW of renewable electricity. ENGIE also provided comprehensive energy management services including sourcing of residual supply, balancing pool management, grid management and more.
Vattenfall
One of the biggest power companies based in Sweden, Vattenfall has embraced 24/7 CFE to enable fossil-free living. To ensure hourly matching, it has been investing heavily in renewable energy projects, such as wind, solar, and hydropower, integrating these with battery storage systems. Additionally, Vattenfall is developing advanced digital platforms for real-time energy monitoring and matching, helping its customers achieve their carbon-free goals.
Ensuring 24/7 carbon-free energy matching is not without its challenges for suppliers. In our new study, based on qualitative interviews with suppliers and buyers, we have two paradoxes that are slowing down the development of 24/7 CFE product offerings by energy suppliers.
- Product availability limits uptake: energy suppliers find 24/7 CFE products more complex than traditional ones, leading to a passive market approach. Consumers, though recognising the importance of 24/7 CFE, lack access to these products and a clear path to adoption. Consequently, only large organisations with significant climate and energy targets and resources have been able to pioneer 24/7 energy solutions, essentially creating the market by collaborating with suppliers to develop bespoke offerings.
- Lack of demand visibility restricts investment: While 24/7 CFE presents new opportunities for energy suppliers to innovate and expand their portfolios, the scarcity of varied renewable energy options and limited visibility over the emerging demand from purchasers risks to hamper investment in essential technologies such as energy storage as well as dispatchable renewable technologies, such as advanced geothermal, which are crucial for entering the market with managed risks.
Energy Consumers
In contrast to suppliers, for energy consumers, the goal is to first understand their initial hourly matching score, and later design a 24/7 CFE strategy to progressively move towards a closer carbon-free energy matching.
Large technology companies, often referred to as ‘Big Tech,’ have played a significant role in driving the 24/7 CFE movement out of its niche, due to their often highly visible and internationally known brand names, unparalleled (and exponentially growing) energy consumption and increasingly concrete sustainability commitments. However, as it will be discussed below, the profile of companies active in this space is increasingly diversifying. Initiatives such as the Climate Group’s 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition, which sees the participation of a wide range of industries – from cement to telecom – is a case in point.
The American big tech giant has been a pioneer in 24/7 CFE, as they were one of the first major firms aiming to operate entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030. The firm uses sophisticated algorithms to match its electricity consumption with local carbon-free energy production in real-time, especially for its many data centres.
Back in 2020, Google was one of the first to announce their aspiration to operate its data centres and offices worldwide with 24/7 CFE, with a target of 100% hourly matching by 2030. Google also introduced the CFE Score, which aims to measure the degree to which each hour of electricity consumption on a given regional grid is matched with CFE on an hourly basis. Such a calculation is done using both contracted CFE and the overall grid mix.
Microsoft
Another powerful multinational force in the transition towards 24/7 carbon-free energy, Microsoft aims to achieve 100% renewable energy for its data centres by 2025 while committing to 100% 24/7 CFE by 2030. This goal underscores Microsoft’s dedication to sustainability and has had great influence on the broader energy market.
Microsoft has been making substantial investments in renewable energy projects worldwide to meet its 24/7 CFE objectives while satisfying its growing energy appetite from AI data centres. Case and point is this year’s $10 billion USD deal with Brookfield Asset Management to expand renewable generation capacity. These investments span various technologies, including solar, wind and hydroelectric power. By diversifying its renewable energy portfolio, Microsoft ensures a consistent and reliable supply of carbon-free energy to match its consumption patterns.
Iron Mountain
This is an American enterprise information management service company known for its high energy consumption within the data centre industry. Iron Mountain aims to achieve 24/7 carbon-free energy across all its global operations by 2040. Over the next decade, Iron Mountain will collaborate closely with its utility partner, Engie, to elevate its carbon-free credentials and explore evolving renewable solutions to reach the goal of being powered by local renewable energy sources at all hours of the day.
Today, new consumers are exploring a 24/7 CFE approach, relying on a strong ecosystem of startups active in the granular data management sector. Manufacturing, banking and pharmaceutical sectors are exploring multi-year 24/7 supply contracts with a combination of solar, wind and hydropower, while retailers and real estate players are partnering with third-parties to see how this approach could enhance transparency and support net-zero claims.
Service providers and facilitators
Service providers and facilitators play a critical role in the 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) ecosystem by offering tools, technologies, and platforms that enable real-time energy tracking, matching and verification. They help companies manage their energy use more effectively, thus ensuring it aligns with carbon-free energy sources every hour of the day. The following are two notable service providers and facilitators of 24/7 CFE.
EnergyTag
This is a non-profit industry initiative working on creating an international standard for tracking energy attributes on an hourly basis, thereby enhancing the transparency and reliability of 24/7 CFE claims. For example, EnergyTag’s partnership with Swedish solar energy firm Svea Solar showcases the practical implementation of hourly matching for solar energy customers in Sweden, demonstrating the potential for scaling this approach across Europe and beyond.
Flexidao
This is another cleantech firm providing energy market participants with the data and digital tools to manage their clean electricity portfolio, improve reporting processes, address risks and enhance corporates’ decarbonisation impact. One of FlexiDAO’s key capabilities is energy and emission data collection. FlexiDAO can access metering and certificate data across Europe, the US and Latin America. Its digital solution aggregates this data into an intuitive platform, allowing for clear oversight of electricity contracts for better reporting and strategising.
Flexidao therefore provides software solutions that allow companies to track and manage their energy consumption in real-time, matching it with renewable energy production. This facilitates accurate reporting and verification of 24/7 carbon-free energy matching. One of their notable projects includes collaboration with Acciona Energy to track energy production from wind and hydro facilities in Spain for corporate clients in Portugal. To do so, they are using blockchain technology for further transparency and accuracy.
Granular Energy
While Flexidao works mainly with energy buyers, Granular Energy focuses on suppliers. In particular, Granular supports utilities in launching hourly-matched energy tariffs; as of today, the company has partnered, among the others, with Drax and Smartest Energy in the UK, A2A in Italy, and JERA Group in Japan.
All in all, we see that hourly matching is gaining traction in Europe but more buyers and suppliers are needed to mainstream this procurement strategy.
Globally, new initiatives are emerging to raise awareness over hourly matching’s substantial benefits.
Renewabl
Renewabl supports corporates from the very start of their 24/7 carbon-free energy journey, offering digital advisory to provide training, pilots, and guidance before scaling into full deployment. Its platform unites data analysis and procurement, with Renewabl Track delivering hourly CFE scores and emissions reporting, and Renewabl Trade offering direct access to over 120 vetted suppliers across 2.5TW of renewable capacity. Backed by 80+ years of market expertise, Renewabl helps buyers navigate regulatory shifts and ensures contracts align with real consumption on an hourly basis. This end-to-end approach — powered by technology, backed by expertise — makes Renewabl a comprehensive solution for corporates seeking transparent and future-proof renewable procurement.
The key benefits of hourly matching
• Continuous Monitoring and Matching: Instead of annual or monthly averages, 24/7 CFE matching requires real-time or hourly monitoring of energy consumption and matching it with equivalent carbon-free energy production. This ensures that at any given time, the electricity used comes from renewable sources like solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal or other carbon-free technologies such as nuclear.
• Diverse Energy Sources: Achieving hourly matching requires a diverse mix of renewable energy sources, as different sources have different availability profiles. Solar power, for instance, is only available during the day, while wind power can be more variable and complement solar. On top of renewables, carbon-free dispatchable technologies, such as nuclear and advanced geothermal are needed to complement production when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
• Energy Storage: Storage technologies, such as batteries, play a crucial role in balancing supply and demand. They store excess energy produced during periods of high renewable generation and release it when generation is low, ensuring continuous carbon-free supply. A higher demand for 24/7 CFE products incentivises new investments into storage.
• Grid Flexibility and Smart Grid Technologies: Advanced grid management and smart grid technologies are essential to facilitate real-time energy matching as it based on granular or even hourly data and related certificates These systems can dynamically adjust and route energy to where it’s needed, ensuring efficient use of carbon-free resources while providing access to much-needed data to certify hourly matching.
• Corporate and Policy Support: Firms and governments adopting 24/7 carbon-free energy goals often influence the broader energy market. Corporate commitments drive demand for renewable energy innovations, while supportive policies and regulations can provide the necessary infrastructure and incentives.
• Reporting and Transparency: Last but not least, carbon-free energy matching ensures more accurate and transparent carbon reporting for corporates as their claims are based on more granular energy certificates with a time stamp of one hour or less validated by meter and grid data. Current certificates – such as guarantees of origin (GOs) are based on annual average consumption which do not necessarily correspond to the geographical reality of the grid where the energy consumer and supplier are located. During a year there could be times where a part of a company’s actual energy intake comes from a grid mix with electricity generated from fossil fuels. Hourly matching can fill in these gaps and certify that a corporates’ energy consumption is matched by clean power 24/7.
• Better hedging: Eurelectric’s study with Pexapark has shown that hourly matching can also improve the effectiveness of renewable-based PPAs as a hedge against price volatility. The success of any long-term contracts such as PPAs hinges on how the energy produced aligns with consumption. When the energy supplied through PPAs – often based on variable wind and solar generation – doesn’t match a buyer’s demand, it can introduce financial uncertainties due to the need to resort to volatile spot markets. Since 24/7 allows a closer match of supply and demand, it can subsequently improve the effectiveness of a hedging strategy through more time-specific PPAs. Higher effectiveness translates into positive financial outcomes. To know more about the study check out our press release.
It’s now time to take a look at this year’s latest developments.
Recent Developments in the 24/7 Ecosystem
There have been growing developments in the world of hourly matching, as it is beginning to emerge from its niche into the greater mainstream of corporate energy sourcing.
This year at the New York Climate Week, a group of companies—led by the Climate Group—kickstarted the 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition to increase awareness among businesses and drive more corporates to embark on the journey to 100% hourly-matched clean energy sourcing. The coalition, which includes Shree Cements and Vodafone UK, aims to create a unified voice advocating for policies and market structures that support 24/7 CFE, providing a platform for collaboration and innovation among its members.
In 2023, hourly matching was included as a criterion to certify green hydrogen in the EU Delegated Hydrogen Act.
The upcoming revision of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol represents another key opportunity to scale hourly matching. The protocol – which also serves as a key reference in calculating Scope 2 emissions for the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Google and EnergyTag
Google partnered with EnergyTag to enhance the traceability of its renewable energy purchases. This collaboration aims to create a robust certification system for hourly renewable energy, ensuring that every kilowatt-hour of Google’s energy use is matched with renewable generation, accurately tracked and certified.
ENGIE and EnergyTag
ENGIE worked with EnergyTag to pilot a certification system that verifies the hourly matching of renewable energy. This initiative aims to provide customers with a verifiable and transparent record of their renewable energy consumption, promoting greater confidence and adoption of 24/7 CFE solutions.
Microsoft and Vattenfall
Microsoft partnered with Vattenfall to power its Swedish data centres with 100% renewable energy, focusing on real-time matching of energy use with renewable generation. This partnership highlights Microsoft’s commitment to achieving 24/7 CFE and demonstrates the practical implementation of this ambitious goal.
EnergyTag and Statkraft
Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, worked with EnergyTag (of which it is also a member) to develop and implement hourly energy certificates. This collaboration aims to enhance the granularity and accuracy of renewable energy tracking, supporting the broader adoption of 24/7 CFE solutions.
How to Help 24/7 CFE Become Mainstream
The following are just some ways to continue facilitating the transition of 24/7 CFE from being a niche to the clean energy tracking mainstream:
- Knowledge Building: Educating potential stakeholders about the benefits and feasibility of 24/7 CFE is crucial. This includes sharing best practices, case studies and the required technical knowledge to build a robust understanding of the concept.
- Feasibility: Demonstrating the practical viability of 24/7 CFE through pilot projects and collaborations can help in overcoming scepticism and showcase feasibility.
- Planning: Developing comprehensive strategies for transitioning to 24/7 CFE, including identifying potential renewable energy sources, storage solutions and necessary grid enhancements.
- Procurement: Encouraging companies to adopt 24/7 CFE procurement practices, including signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) and investing in renewable energy projects.
- Digitalisation: Leveraging advanced digital technologies such as AI and platforms for real-time energy monitoring, matching, and reporting to enable the seamless integration of 24/7 CFE practices.
- Certification: Establishing standardised certification processes to verify and validate 24/7 CFE claims, ensuring credibility and transparency.
- Reporting: Implementing robust reporting mechanisms that provide accurate, real-time data on energy consumption and carbon-free energy matching, enhancing accountability and trust.
Embarking on the 24/7 CFE journey
The journey towards 24/7 carbon-free energy is not without challenges, but the commitment and innovation demonstrated by key actors provide a clear pathway to a fully decarbonised electricity system. The road to mainstream now requires a coordinated effort among various stakeholders, including energy suppliers, consumers, service providers and even policymakers. By embracing this approach, we can significantly accelerate the transition to a sustainable future, ensuring that clean energy powers every aspect of our lives, every hour of every day.
To know more about hourly matching, check out Eurelectric’s 24/7 CFE Business Hub!
Disclaimer: This article is for informative purposes only and may not entirely reflect Eurelectric official positions. For formal positions, please consult our position papers here.