March 21, 2005—The current market for renewable energy certificates in the United States is worth $145 million a year, with a potential of $900 million a year by 2010, says a report prepared for the Department of Energy.
The report, prepared for DOEs National Renewable Energy Laboratory, describes renewable energy certificates (RECs) as the attributes of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. These attributes are unbundled from the physical electricity, and the two productsthe attributes embodied in the certificates and the commodity electricitymay be sold or traded separately.
The report says that RECs are quickly becoming the currency of renewable energy markets because of their flexibility and the fact that they are not subject to the geographic and physical limitations of commodity electricity.
Compliance RECs have sold for 70 to $49 per MWh in different regions, while voluntary market prices have traded for $2 to $6/MWh. Voluntary markets have supported higher prices for preferred resources such as solar and wind, with solar RECs trading for as much as $200/MWh in voluntary markets, while RECs from pre-existing sources have traded in the range of $1 to $3/MWh.
For more information, see the report on the EERE Web site [Note: this link may take a long time to download!].
