Green Power for Off-Grid Building

Hi Jonny,

When you say to that you are generating your own power on site, I assume that it is from a renewable source. I think you should be able to claim credits for the RECs you are purchasing.

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are for the creation of each megawatt of electricity from a renewable source which is put back into the grid or co located captive power plants. An REC from a third party green power provider usually has two elements to it.

One is the actual electrons which are generated. These are usually sold to the grid or supplied to the customer off grid, depending on the location, availability and other viability aspects. After the electrons are added to the grid, there is no way of tracking which ones are from green clean renewable sources and which ones from oil, coal or other non- renewable sources.

So parallely, RECs can be issued which is the second element and is linked to the environmental benefits associated with the renewable energy generation. These are sold separately from the grid and are something that you could claim credits for in your project. All RECs do not have the same value, e.g. solar source generated RECs usually have higher values. This is dependent upon the source, location, etc. Buying an REC is like buying renewable energy. RECs can be bought and also, traded. When purchasing an REC the contracts should also be clearly verified to see which environmental attributes are being transferred. RECs can be sold as bundled i.e. paired with the electricity or unbundled i.e. separately without the electricity.

Certificate tracking systems also exist in several states which track the generation and transfer of RECs among different purchasers. RECs do not have geographical constraints and so, become one of the least expensive methods to purchase green power from a third party supplier.

So, your project seems to be eligible for the green power credits. Other factors would also include if you are purchasing green power (actual electricity) to offset your generation or only the RECs environmental benefits which support green power generation programs.

For getting the RECs, there are many options. You can get in touch with green energy service providers who may directly supply energy to your site through the suppliers. Certain other service providers allow you to choose the renewable energy supplier on your own and coordinate directly with the supplier. Or otherwise you could directly go to the Green Power supplier. You can check the US Dept. of Energy website for a list of REC suppliers.