International Green Power Markets

Currently, green power is offered to retail customers in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Each of these regions uses market instruments to track and verify the green power available for the consumer.

Throughout the world, electricity providers (e.g., utilities, retailers, etc.) use market instruments—generally known as energy attribute certificates (EACs)—to provide information and data on how electricity is generated and used. Because EACs are a market construct, they may track slightly different information and go by different naming conventions in different regional energy markets.

In the United States, we use renewable energy certificates (RECs) that represent the property rights to the environmental, social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.

Other instruments include Europe’s Guarantee of Origin, which, like U.S.-based RECs, are used to document and report energy generated from a renewable resource.

I-REC is a global standard being introduced in a growing number of countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, where no similar schemes exist.

U.S. vs. Canadian-Based RECs

The Green Power Partnership program only recognizes generation from eligible U.S.-based projects (pdf) for U.S.-based facilities. The U.S.-Canadian market boundary question is one that is not universally clear. The World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (pdf) (see page 65) suggests that these are two separate markets because their regulatory oversight is separate. From a U.S. EPA perspective, despite there being a physical grid connection between the United States and Canada at several points, the two countries have separate political and regulatory boundaries. Canada and the United States also do not have a reciprocal agreement to recognize their respective markets, akin to what countries have within the European Union. 

Additional Resources

• International Renewable Energy Agency. Regional Market Analyses
• Bird, L., R. Wüstenhagen, J. Aabakken, 2002. A review of international green power markets: recent experience, trends, and market drivers.