This edition of “A Climate Hawk’s Companion” is a beginner's guide to Renewable Energy Credit, or REC.
In this episode Ted talks about what RECs are and gives a basic overview of why they are important, plus we provide some links to get more information.
In order to hear the podcast, click on the icon to the left.
Here are some links discussed in the podcast:
The Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance website is a good place to buy clean electricity. (These programs include New England Wind and New England GreenStart.) They buy the REC’s that make your electricity green.
Here are some definitions of RECs from Wikipedia and the EPA. For example: A REC (pronounced: rěk) represents the property rights to the environmental, social, and other nonpower qualities of renewable electricity generation. A REC, and its associated attributes and benefits, can be sold separately from the underlying physical electricity associated with a renewable-based generation source.
Here are some references for the ideas discussed:
Idea 1: Electrons are identical.
Idea 2: The utilities can measure what goes on and off the grid.
Idea 3: The ability to separate the physical electrons from their environmental benefits
Idea 4: Value in the environmental benefit environmental benefit, as distinct from value of electrons.
Idea 5: The ability to decouple the “greenness” at point of production from point of use.
Idea 6: The ability to use market forces to encourage the growth of renewables. This includes ways that certification cab avoid double counting here and here. There is some information on Renewable Portfolio (RPS) Standards and the voluntary markets.
This is just a start. Good luck investigating this topic.
…Ted McIntyre
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