Real estate’s journey to net zero requires renewable energy—and lots of it.
As a growing number of real estate firms commit to decarbonizing their assets, securing green power is becoming an increasingly necessary step for achieving significant carbon reductions. For many owners, the most straightforward and cost-effective route to green power is sourcing directly through local utility providers. However, several barriers have made it difficult for real estate and utilities to collaborate and identify solutions for increasing the amount of green power flowing to the built environment, in ways that mutually benefits utility organizations.
To address these barriers and facilitate relationships between real estate and utility providers, ULI organized its first-ever Utility and Real Estate Green Power convening. The event—held on November 15th in Denver, Colorado, and facilitated by ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability and ULI Colorado, was the inaugural event aimed at building stronger partnerships between the real estate and utility sectors. Hosted by LBA Realty at Denver Place, the convening was attended by local and national real estate leaders, as well as representatives from Xcel Energy, which serves customers in Colorado as well as seven other states across the country. It was clear that convening this diverse group of stakeholders was key, as an attendee noted, “for the most part, real estate doesn’t speak utility, and the utility doesn’t speak real estate.”
That began to change as participants agreed that installing onsite renewables, such as solar panels on the roof of a building, is one way to ensure an asset has its own reliable source of clean, carbon-free energy. Another route is purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs), which are credits sold by energy providers that guarantee buyers are sourcing renewable energy for their assets. While these pathways can be effective in some cases, they aren’t perfect.
After a brief welcome from ULI and the City and County of Denver, the group discussed best practices for sourcing green power, as well as challenges they have experienced. The group raised key barriers to procuring green power, like how incorporating onsite renewables is not always feasible (i.e. lack of roof space, locational limitations, etc.), procuring offsite renewable power from utilities can be complex and unique per utility territory, pricing is hard to navigate across regions with different cost structures, as well as general regionality of utility programs and policies.
All confirmed that real estate developers and/or owners need more education around how to buy green power for assets locally and portfolio-wide. The group also found consensus on very high demand, but limited supply of, turn-key green power utility programs as well as concerns that the regional and national utility grid is not ready to meet the ambitious carbon reduction goals set by real estate. To meet these challenges, the roundtable shifted to discussing opportunities around the topic of bringing more green power to real estate buildings, namely:
- Renewable power developments (i.e. solar farms)
- Battery storage technology
- Other technologies (i.e. AI, grid-interactive software, etc.)
- Utility grid resilience
- New partnerships with policymakers
- Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding
With great interest in exploring potential opportunities, Xcel Energy presented its current green power programs and the potential for engagement and alignment on its 2026 planning process. Key highlights include providing over 1GW of renewable energy storage and ending coal use by 2030.
The roundtable next welcomed three real estate developers to present on their green power procurement progress and successes. First, Edmee Knight with Unico Properties discussed the complications around disposing of a building that has a Power Purchase Agreement in place, Andy Bush with Morgan Creek Ventures highlighted the financial benefits of an electrified building portfolio, and Alex Perlman, with Prologis, covered their progress with on-site solar and battery storage, noting that they anticipate “we’ll have some sort of battery at all our buildings by 2030.”
Next the group shifted to actionable next steps. Participants made clear that the following strategies are key to addressing green procurement demand:
- Collaboration: Frequent and more intentional collaboration between developers and utility providers will pave the way for more green power in real estate.
- Xcel wants feedback from customers to better meet current and future needs.
- Developers want to foster innovation with pilot programs at the utility level.
- ULI could serve as a central hub for information and resources and ULI Colorado will keep the regional group connected via events and opportunities.
- Education & Resources: Education and resources are needed to help developers understand how to source green power and decipher the local, state, and federal, regulations.
- ULI can partner with organizations already well versed in green power like the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance (CEBA).
- ULI can focus on an overview of current and future regulations related to green power (as an addition to ULI’s existing green building policy list)
- Sharing Success: Identify and share lessons learned from developments that have successfully partnered with a utility to source green power.
- Focus on ULI case studies and project profiles initially but explore leverage utility pilot programs and opportunities.
At the end of the convening, it was clear that the room was ready for action. There was momentum for not only continuing the conversation but also focusing on how to move forward with actionable solutions and spreading the word to more regions. ULI plans to host utility and green power convenings in other regions, with near-term targets of the mid-Atlantic and Southern California.
Get involved! Let us know if you’ve successfully worked with your local utility to procure green power for your development. Or, have you hit roadblocks and are interested in learning more? There are multiple ways to stay engaged: share your experiences via feedback to [email protected], visit our website for updates, join a scheduled convening, sponsor a convening or workshop in your utility territory and more!
