Renewable Energy Credits benefits
Renewable Energy Credits were developed in
part to provide a flexible,
cost-effective means for
utilities and end users to support green energy.
Secondarily, they were envisioned as a means
to provide more consistent, reliable accounting
of renewable energy generation. Unencumbered
with the challenges of having to physically
deliver green energy to end users, Renewable
Energy Credits marketers, in theory, are able
to sell the associated benefits in the form
of easily transferable certificates. Renewable
Energy Credits provide renewable generators
with a secondary revenue stream for the environmental
attributes of their generation. Green tags
also make it easier for utilities and suppliers
to meet state renewable portfolio standards
in much the same way that purchasing emissions
credits provides an alternative to reducing
emissions. In fact, according to an Environmental
Protection Agency official, if Renewable Energy
Credits succeed domestically and avoided emissions
factors can be standardized, EPA may eventually
seek to integrate them into emissions markets.
In short, Renewable Energy Credits:
- Change the environmental, economic, and social benefits of green energy into a form that is far more fungible than traditional green energy.
- Simplify the sale of energy generated at renewable facilities into wholesale markets.
- Offer the possibility of a uniform system to simplify tracking and verification of energy generated at renewable facilities.
