Tate & Lyle has agreed with Alabama Power to cover all the electricity used at its sucralose plant in McIntosh, Alabama, with wind energy. There is no wind farm in the deal's name, no capacity and no term. The certificates behind it come from wind farms in Kansas and Oklahoma. Seventeen days later Tate & Lyle signed a second wind contract in Texas that looks nothing like the first.
Key takeaways
- Alabama Power signed an agreement with Tate & Lyle, announced on 9 September 2024, to supply wind energy covering 100 percent of the electricity needed at Tate & Lyle's sucralose production facility in McIntosh, Alabama.
- The renewable energy certificates in the Alabama Power and Tate & Lyle agreement will be sourced from wind farms in Kansas and Oklahoma.
- Tate & Lyle says the Alabama Power agreement covers its McIntosh sucralose facility with zero Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions.
- On 26 September 2024 Tate & Lyle also signed a 12-year PPA with Enel North America for 256 GWh a year from the 263 MW Ranchland wind farm in Texas, starting in October 2024.
- Enerdatics records 39 US onshore wind PPAs announced in 2024; the Alabama Power agreement with Tate & Lyle is the only one that names neither a wind farm nor a contracted capacity.
What is Tate & Lyle actually buying from Alabama Power?
A renewable claim on the power Alabama Power supplies to the site. Under the agreement, the plant's electricity is matched with renewable energy certificates sourced from wind farms in Kansas and Oklahoma.
A renewable energy certificate, or REC, is a tradable record that one megawatt-hour of electricity was generated from a renewable source. A company that holds and retires RECs equal to its consumption can claim that consumption as renewable, even though the electrons reaching its site come from the local grid. That is the mechanism here. The power is delivered by Alabama Power; the renewable attribute travels from wind farms two states away.
This kind of arrangement buys a claim rather than new supply on the buyer's own grid. Enerdatics has looked at similar structures before, such as Toyota Boshoku's agreement with Clearway, where the company bought certificates, not power, and Meta's Kelso contract, which buys Missouri solar attributes, not Missouri power.
What does 'zero Scope 2' mean here?
It means the plant's electricity emissions are counted as zero under the accounting method the company uses. Scope 2 covers greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity. Under market-based accounting, a company can report those emissions using the certificates it holds rather than the average emissions of the grid it draws from. Matching 100 percent of McIntosh's consumption with wind RECs allows Tate & Lyle to report zero Scope 2 emissions for the site.
The phrase is Tate & Lyle's, and it describes an accounting outcome. It says nothing about how the electricity flowing into McIntosh is generated on any given hour. That distinction is not a criticism of the deal. It is simply what this structure delivers, and it fits a deal that names no wind farm: the certificates are drawn from wind farms across two states rather than from one named project.
Leap also tags the deal's power market as Independent, meaning it sits outside the organised wholesale markets such as ERCOT, PJM or MISO. In a market like that, a large customer's supply typically runs through the local utility, which helps explain why the agreement was struck with Alabama Power rather than with a wind farm owner.
Why did Tate & Lyle sign a different kind of contract in Texas?
Because Texas allows a different route. On 26 September 2024, Enel North America signed a PPA with Tate & Lyle for the 263 MW Ranchland wind farm in Callahan and Eastland counties, Texas. That contract runs for 12 years from October 2024 and delivers 256 GWh of renewable electricity a year together with the associated RECs. Ranchland also includes an 87 MW battery storage system.
Ranchland sits in ERCOT, Texas' competitive wholesale market, where a corporate buyer can contract directly with a generator. The Texas deal therefore names a project, a term and an annual volume. NRG acted as trading advisor to Tate & Lyle on the Texas deal; Leap records no advisor on the Alabama agreement.
Put side by side, the two contracts show one buyer using two routes in two kinds of market. In Alabama, it worked through the incumbent utility and certificates from elsewhere. In Texas, it contracted with a specific wind farm on a fixed term.
Enerdatics' data shows 39 onshore wind PPAs in the US announced in 2024. Thirty of them disclose a contracted capacity, and almost all name the wind farm involved. The Alabama Power agreement with Tate & Lyle is the only one of the 39 that names neither. Only one of the 39 discloses a tariff: Clearway's contract with Turlock Irrigation District for the Tuolumne wind project, at $114 per MWh. Nineteen disclose a term, with a median of 15 years. Tate & Lyle's Ranchland contract, at 12 years, sits below that; the longest, at 25 and 26 years, were signed by a utility and two power cooperatives.
What does the deal signal for corporate renewable buying in the US South?
It signals that companies with plants outside the competitive markets still have a route to renewable claims, but it is a narrower one. Utility agreements backed by certificates let a single site report zero Scope 2 emissions quickly. They do not usually come with a named project, a fixed term or published volumes, which makes them hard to compare with standard PPAs.
It also signals how a single company's renewable strategy can split along market lines. Tate & Lyle's two September 2024 wind contracts were signed 17 days apart and look nothing alike on paper. One is an accounting arrangement through a local utility; the other is a 12-year supply contract with a Texas wind farm that has battery storage on site.
Finally, it shows the limits of the public record. Leap can say that the McIntosh plant's electricity is fully matched with wind certificates. It cannot say how many megawatt-hours that is, for how long the arrangement runs, or what Tate & Lyle pays for it. For anyone tracking corporate wind demand in the Southeast, that leaves the deal as a signal of intent rather than a measurable volume.
Frequently asked questions
What did Tate & Lyle agree with Alabama Power? Tate & Lyle agreed with Alabama Power, in a deal announced on 9 September 2024, to cover 100 percent of the electricity used at its McIntosh, Alabama, sucralose facility with wind energy, using RECs from wind farms in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Does the Alabama Power agreement name a wind farm? No. The agreement names no specific wind farm or capacity. The renewable energy certificates are sourced from wind farms in Kansas and Oklahoma.
What other wind contract did Tate & Lyle sign in 2024? Tate & Lyle signed a 12-year PPA with Enel North America on 26 September 2024 for 256 GWh a year from the 263 MW Ranchland wind farm in Texas.
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