Air Liquide has signed its first virtual power purchase agreement, with Statkraft, for wind power in Poland. The contract is expected to cut the industrial gases group's emissions by 38,000 tonnes a year. Yet no electricity from the wind farms needs to reach an Air Liquide plant for that to count. What Air Liquide is buying is something other than power.
Key takeaways
- Statkraft signed a long-term virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with Air Liquide in Poland, announced on 13 February 2024, the first contract of its kind for Air Liquide.
- The Statkraft VPPA involves Air Liquide sourcing renewable energy certificates from Polish wind farms, linked to newly installed renewable production capacity.
- The Statkraft and Air Liquide agreement aims to reduce Air Liquide's CO2 emissions by 38,000 tonnes a year as part of its decarbonisation and sustainability strategy.
- Air Liquide aims to sign more contracts of the same type as its Statkraft VPPA in future, as part of a strategy that includes using industrial gases with a lower carbon footprint.
- Enerdatics records 47 PPAs in Poland announced in 2023 and 2024; Air Liquide's VPPA is one of only three that disclose neither the contracted capacity nor the contract length.
What is a virtual PPA, and what does Air Liquide actually receive?
A virtual PPA is a financial contract rather than a physical supply contract. The generator sells its electricity into the market as usual. The buyer and the generator settle the difference between an agreed price and the market price, and the buyer receives the certificates that prove the electricity was produced from renewable sources.
That is why the record describes the Air Liquide deal in terms of certificates. Air Liquide sources renewable energy certificates from Polish wind farms, and those certificates are linked to newly installed capacity. Air Liquide keeps buying its physical electricity as before. The certificates let it claim the renewable attribute of the wind output, and the price arrangement gives the wind farms a long-term revenue reference.
The phrase "newly installed" carries weight. Certificates from wind farms that already exist add no new generation to the grid. Tying the contract to new capacity is what lets both parties say the deal helps bring additional renewable generation into the Polish system rather than just relabelling what was already there.
Why would an industrial gases company want certificates rather than electrons?
Because its emissions problem is electricity-heavy, and a virtual structure is easier to arrange across many sites. Producing industrial gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon involves separating air, which is an energy-intensive process. The carbon footprint of the product depends heavily on the carbon intensity of the electricity used to make it.
A physical PPA would require the wind power to be delivered to a specific site, with the grid arrangements that implies. A virtual PPA avoids that. The record says the contract supports the use of industrial gases with a lower carbon footprint. Air Liquide can then point to a measurable cut in emissions, 38,000 tonnes a year, without changing how electricity reaches its plants.
The record also says the arrangement is beneficial to both the renewable producer and the industrial consumer. For Statkraft, a long-term financial contract with a large industrial counterparty helps underpin revenue from new Polish wind farms. For Air Liquide, it is a way to decarbonise that it says it intends to repeat.
What does the contract leave unsaid?
Almost every commercial term. The record gives no capacity, no annual volume, no contract length and no price. It does not name the wind farms. The only quantity disclosed is the expected emissions reduction.
Enerdatics records 47 PPAs in Poland announced across 2023 and 2024. Sixteen are for wind. Eleven have an industrial buyer, including Air Liquide, Umicore, CEMEX, Lafarge, CMC Steel and Safran. Only three of the 47, Air Liquide's, Polenergia's contract with STRABAG and Polenergia's contract with InPost, disclose neither capacity nor duration. Air Liquide's is also one of only three Polish contracts in the period described as virtual, alongside GoldenPeaks Capital's 109 MW VPPA with Mondelez in 2023 and R.Power's VPPA with LUX MED Group in 2024.
That opacity makes Air Liquide's contract hard to benchmark. It can be placed by type and by buyer, but not by size or price. The emissions figure is the only lever for scale, and it depends on assumptions about the Polish grid that the record does not state.
What does the deal signal for Polish corporate PPAs?
It signals that Polish wind is being sold to industrial buyers as a decarbonisation instrument, not only as a hedge on power prices. The record also notes that the project supports Poland's renewable energy consumption target, so the same contract serves a corporate climate goal and a national one.
It also shows Statkraft working the Polish market from several angles at once. On the same day as the Air Liquide VPPA, Statkraft signed a ten-year solar PPA with iliad's Polish subsidiary Play for the Resko solar farm, a physical contract with disclosed volume. Two Statkraft contracts in one country on one day, structured in opposite ways, show how far corporate offtake has fragmented.
The alternative for Polish wind owners is the open market. Small operating wind farms that sell on the free market carry the full swing of wholesale prices, as Airengy's purchase of three merchant Polish turbines illustrates. A long-term contract with an industrial counterparty is one way new capacity avoids that exposure.
Frequently asked questions
What did Air Liquide sign with Statkraft?A long-term virtual power purchase agreement in Poland, announced on 13 February 2024, under which Air Liquide sources renewable energy certificates from Polish wind farms linked to newly installed capacity. It is Air Liquide's first VPPA.
How much will the Statkraft VPPA reduce Air Liquide's emissions?The agreement aims to reduce Air Liquide's CO2 emissions by 38,000 tonnes a year.
What are the capacity and length of the Air Liquide VPPA?Neither has been disclosed. The record describes the contract only as long-term and does not name the wind farms involved.
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