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PPL Expedites Clean Energy Shift by Joining EIP's $1B Fund

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PPL Corporation (PPL - Free Report) joins Energy Impact Partners (EIP), a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable energy future, in their Flagship Fund, Fund II. PPL announced plans to invest up to $50 million across its platform. This will aid in decarbonization and make its services more sustainable in nature.

A total of $1 billion was collected by this fund and the amount will be utilized in investing in ventures that use sustainable climate technologies. Prior to this, PPL invested in another EIP fund, the Elevate Future Fund.

This commitment will help PPL discover new technologies that will bolster the zero-carbon economy and aid PPL to leverage the emerging technologies to advance to a cleaner energy future.

Other Efforts

PPL consistently makes investments to expand its renewable generation capacity as well as deepen its focus on new technology to serve customers more efficiently. It is taking initiatives to electrify its fleet of vehicles along with seeking opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint. Moreover, PPL’s carbon emission-reduction target is set to touch the below two-degree Celsius scenario.

It updated its target to reduce carbon emission by 70% within 2035 instead of 2040 and 80% within 2040 instead of 2050 through the introduction of a new carbon capture technology and adding more renewable sources to its generation portfolio. Further, it aims to become carbon neutral by 2050. As of 2020, it achieved nearly 60% emission reduction from the 2010 levels.

In September, PPL pledged to join the Electric Highway Coalition, a partnership of 17 U.S. utilities, to establish efficient and fast electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to broaden the charging infrastructure network. This shall surely expand its footprint in the rapidly-expanding EV market.

Transition in Utility Space

A clear transition is quite evident in the U.S. utility space with utilities announcing plans to cut carbon emissions from their operations. The clean energy shift is possible for the sector owing to abundant availability of clean natural gas and other alternative energy sources like solar, water as well as wind.

Other electric utilities that are adopting measures to supply clean and reliable energy to their customers include Duke Energy (DUK - Free Report) , DTE Energy (DTE - Free Report) and Alliant Energy (LNT - Free Report) . While DUK and DTE currently carry a Zacks Rank#3 (Hold), LNT holds a Zacks Rank#2 (Buy).

DUK, DTE and LNT are all planning to provide absolute clean energy by 2050. These also have interim goals. DTE Energy remains committed to reduce carbon emissions of its electric utility operations by 32% within 2023, 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040 from the 2005 carbon emissions levels. Duke Energy plans to reduce carbon emissions between approximately 55% and 75% through 2035. Alliant Energy targets to retire all the existing coal-fired generation units by 2040 with an objective of lowering emissions from 2005 levels by 50% within 2030.

Price Movement

In the past three months, shares of PPL have lost 2.2% compared with the industry’s fall of 1.2%.

Three Months Price Performance

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Rank

PPL currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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