Autodesk, Other Tech Companies Backing 30-MW Solar Farm in Italy

Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. (SR Inc.), a corporate sustainability firm based in Boston, has announced four new virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) facilitated through its Net Zero Consortium for Buyers (NZCB), a confidential renewable energy buyers’ community for utility-scale clean energy.

Under the agreements, four global technology firms – Autodesk, IDEXX Laboratories, Synopsys and one unnamed participant – will jointly secure 30 MW of clean energy from a new solar project in Italy.

Autodesk, a global provider of digital architecture, engineering, construction, product design and media software, will procure 5 MW of solar energy, as will IDEXX Laboratories, a global leader in pet healthcare. Synopsys, a provider of silicon-to-systems design solutions, will procure 7 MW of solar energy, with the unnamed participant responsible for the remaining 13 MW. 

“We believe that operating responsibly is fundamental to building long-term value,” said Erika Varga McEnroe, senior vice president, legal and deputy general counsel at Synopsys. “This includes pursuing decarbonization efforts that make sound business sense, help us meet our SBTi-validated emissions reduction targets, and enable the availability of more renewable energy.”

VPPAs explained

Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are financial arrangements that allow companies, municipalities or utilities to support clean energy projects without bearing the upfront capital costs. In a traditional PPA, a developer installs, owns, and maintains a renewable energy system—such as a solar array—on the customer’s site. The customer then purchases the electricity generated at a fixed, typically lower, rate over time.

Virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) work differently. Instead of receiving the physical power, the buyer enters into a contract with a developer for energy generated elsewhere, often in a different region. While the electricity is sold into the local wholesale market, the buyer receives the associated renewable energy credits (RECs), which can be used to offset their carbon footprint.

This model allows organizations to meet sustainability goals and support the broader deployment of clean energy. At the same time, it helps reduce emissions in the regions where the projects are built, delivering environmental benefits to both the buyer and the host community.

New renewable energy capacity under construction

Rather than purchasing renewable energy credits from existing systems, the VPPAs in this case are driving the construction of Solartrack, a new 52-MW solar farm in Catania, Sicily.

Aquila Clean Energy EMEA, a European integrated and hybrid clean energy solutions developer and independent power producer, is developing the project.

Solartrack was designed with PVcase, an end-to-end design and engineering platform for solar project developments that is part of Autodesk’s AutoCAD solution.

“This agreement is a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to sustainability and the wider shift towards a low-carbon economy,” said Marcos Dominguez, head of power hedging & research at Aquila Clean Energy EMEA. “Collaborative purchasing agreements such as this one are essential for accelerating the large-scale deployment of renewable energy.”

Solartrack’s array is expected to be complete by early 2026, with the site set to be commercially operational by September of that same year.

Meeting corporate emissions goals and serving the local community

Over the 10-year span of the VPPAs, Solartrack will generate approximately 61,000 Purchaser Caused Environmental Attribute Certificates (PC EACs) annually for the four off-takers, helping the companies meet their Scope 2 emissions goals.

PC EACs are a specific type of Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC) that aim to differentiate certificates based on their direct contribution to the development of new renewable energy capacity. Similar to renewable energy credits (REC), PC EACs are relatively new, but are gaining traction in the corporate community.

“Corporations must secure EACs to meet their Scope 2 emissions goals, as they represent the only way to claim each megawatt hour of renewable energy – whether produced on your roof or 1,000 miles away,” said Jim Boyle, CEO and founder of Sustainability Roundtable.

The local community on the Italian island of Sicily will also benefit from the clean energy generated at Solartrack.

“While the off-takers are responsible for causing the project to be financed and built and will retain the environmental attributes, the physical energy generated will be injected into the grid, supporting the region's energy transition and contributing to the decarbonization of Sicily’s power supply,” Boyle told EnergyTech.

“By joining forces with other forward-thinking organizations, we can increase the efficiency of renewable energy access, helping to decarbonize the grid in a way that benefits the environment and the communities we serve,” Dominguez said.

Harvesting energy and crops

The 247-acre Solartrack site will combine agriculture and power generation. The solar array will occupy approximately one acre, with the rest of the land dedicated to cultivating crops such as olive trees, aromatic herbs, garlic, celery, parsley, and several types of salad, spinach and legumes.

The project is expected to avoid around 24,000 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 emissions annually, generating clean energy equivalent to the annual consumption of 27,000 households.

“We are thrilled to join the NZCB because we understand that by advancing cleaner energy sources and embedding carbon intelligence into our design and make tools, we’re accelerating progress toward a more resilient and equitable lower-carbon future,” said Joe Speicher, chief sustainability officer at Autodesk.

VPPA 2.0

The VPPS is part of NZCB's VPPA 2.0 platform, Next Gigawatt, a reverse auction process designed to support project financing by offering developers predictable, fixed-price revenue streams.

By aggregating demand across multiple buyers, the model expands access to renewable energy opportunities for companies that may be too small to pursue a VPPA alone.

“Previously, only members of SR Inc's Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable could participate in NZCB invitation-only aggregate procurements,” Boyle told EnergyTech. “Our Next Gigawatt is open to any high-credit operating enterprise interested in joining an invitation-only aggregated procurement advance market commitments for energy attribute certificates that cause new renewable energy capacity.”

The organization is striving to cause another gigawatt of new renewable energy capacity before its Summit for Sustainable Business IX in March, Boyle said.

This would add to the 1GW the organization brokered in the U.S. last year through aggregated VPPAs between NZCB and Akamai Technologies, Teradyne, Wayfair and the city of Cambridge, Mass.

SR Inc is well on its way to reaching its goal of 2 GW of capacity by 2026.

In addition to the Solartrack project in Sicily, Boyle said they are negotiating VPPAs for four solar projects in Poland, evaluating 533 bids from an RFP for another European aggregation project, launching an RFP for utility-scale renewables in the UK and negotiating an aggregated solar VPPA in Texas.

“We are determined to help our NZCB participating enterprises evolve transaction structures and systems to enable TWs of new clean energy – to cause the 3X of renewable energy by 2030 that our wounded world desperately needs to rescue the Paris Accords and reverse the transgression of the ecological limits those Accords recognized,” Boyle said.