Tradable Certificates:  New Green Power Option for Ohioans

By Amanda Rhoads, Program Manager, Green Energy Ohio

To find out about Green-e certified TRCs, read this press release or visit the Green-e website on Tradable Renewable Energy Certificates.

Ohio's electricity market is now "deregulated."  The promise of restructuring the electric utility industry in any state is customer choice: Ohioans should have options among power providers, and even those offering "green power," or electricity from clean, renewable sources.  This has not been the case thus far in Ohio.

However, a new possibility is emerging in the national market which will allow all Ohioans to support cleaner electricity generation.  The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), which manages the Green-e program to certify renewable electricity products, announced in mid-March a new certification program which promises to bring green power to everyone, regardless of whether one lives in a robust, deregulated market or not.

This new program will work with electricity suppliers to certify tradable renewable energy certificates (TRCs), also known as "green tags."  TRCs represent the environmental benefits of renewable energy generation in the form of a marketable commodity.  In other words, a power generator can generate clean electricity say, in Iowa, and can sell the "greenness" of the power anywhere else in the country.  Meanwhile, the power they generate in Iowa is sold to Iowans as regular electricity.  Purchasers of TRCs do not receive power from the TRC marketer; they continue to buy electricity from their traditional power company.  They end up paying two bills: one to purchase electricity from their company, and one to buy the green attributes of power in the form of TRCs.

Why would anyone create such a confusing system?  Purchases of TRCs allow renewable plants to be built where cost is lowest and the resource is highest, while their positive attributes are delivered to customers anywhere.  Buying TRCs allows consumers to create similar environmental benefits to buying locally-generated green power: reduced dependence on burning fossil fuels to produce electricity and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful air pollution.  "TRC markets mean more customers can support clean renewable energy at lower cost," said Dr. Jan Hamrin, Executive Director of CRS, "and providing certification for high quality TRC products means customers can buy with confidence that they are helping make the renewable energy industry grow."

• This Green-e certification program will set a standard for TRCs, so that when consumers see the Green-e logo on a TRC product, they will be able to trust that the TRCs are :
   produced by new renewable energy generation;
• offered by marketers who agree to abide by Green-e's stringent environmental and consumer protection standards; and
• supported by an annual verification audit to ensure that TRC customers receive promised benefits.

While Green Energy Ohio and many others are working to get more renewably generated power online in Ohio, so that Ohio can reap the benefits of cleaner power generation, green power is not currently an option for most of us.  In the meantime, purchasing TRCs may be the only way that most Ohio power consumers can support renewable energy and know that the environmental benefits are making a difference, even if that difference is being felt elsewhere.

For more information about TRCs and green power certification, please contact the Center for Resource Solutions at 415-561-2100 or visit www.resource-solutions.org or www.green-e.org.  Green Energy Ohio will be following this issue closely; for future information on TRC options available to Ohioans, please call 1-866-GREENOH or visit http://www.greenenergyohio.org/.

TRC fact sheets:
· A fact sheet about Tradable Renewable Certificates is available from the American Wind Energy Association at www.awea.org/greenpower/gp_how2.html
· The Office of Power Technologies fact sheet on tradable certificates is here: www.eren.doe.gov/power/consumer/green_certificates.html
· The Regulatory Assistance Project explains TRCs in their July 2001 newsletter: www.rapmaine.org/gpnews8.htm

Other resources on TRCs:
· The Center for Resource Solutions has links to papers and information about TRCs at
www.resource-solutions.org/TRECs.htm
· The Green-e website is www.Green-e.org
· Green Energy Ohio will document certified TRCs available to Ohioans at www.GreenEnergyOhio.org
· The government's Green Power Network website has a listing of companies offering TRCs: www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/intro.shtml
· A report about the implications of TRCs for deployment of renewables in Europe is at the Energy Research Center for the Netherlands website at: www.ecn.nl/unit_bs/gr_cert/impltgc/c99072s.html

Berkeley Lab & Clean Energy States Alliance Case Studies of State Support for Renewable Energy, "The Experience of State Clean Energy Funds with Tradable Renewable Certificates"
by Garrett Fitzgerald, Ryan Wiser & Mark Bolinger, November 2003, 13 pages
Excerpt and link to .pdf dowload