Germany’s railway service Deutsche Bahn (DB) has started a tender process to seek about 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power over a period of eight years through power purchase agreements (PPA), the company announced in a press release. “From 2038, Deutsche Bahn will be running on 100 percent green power. We are systematically replacing expiring power plant contracts with renewable energy,” said Torsten Schein, chairman of the management board DB Energie.

The German rail company uses about 10 terawatt hours of electricity annually and says it is “Germany’s biggest consumer of green power,” according to Clean Energy Wire.

With the guaranteed 20-year feed-in tariffs funding period approaching its end for the first German pioneer renewables projects in 2021, the country’s operators increasingly have to look for alternative ways to keep their wind and solar power installations running at a profit. They can sell their electricity to one specific customer. These long-term contracts that are referred to as power purchase agreements (PPA) serve to finance the operation and construction of new plants.