Promoting Green Power in Canada - Centre for Human Settlements

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Promoting Green Power in Canada Pollution ProbeBox 5.1 — Green Tags Offered by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) inOregonBEF has teamed up with three environmental non-profit organizations to assure“certification“of green power through endorsements. The Bonneville Power Associationsupplies wind, low-impact hydro, landfill gas and solar energy for creating the tags. Otherearly supporters were the Hewlett Foundation and the Packard Foundation. These twogroups provided funds to cover the administrative and start-up expenses of BEF during thefirst two years of operation. In addition, BEF has received contributions from New EnergyVentures, Enron Corporation, Scottish Power, Edison Enterprises and PG&E Corporation.BEF sells its green tags to residential customers over the Internet. Increasingly, theorganization also sells to utilities, such as Idaho Power or cooperatives like Peninsula LightCompany, who in turn retail them as green power to their customers or members.BEF is open to inquiries from renewable power providers inside the United States for newcontracts. The Foundation sells green tags to clients in up to 20 states, but its focus lies inthe Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana). As the Foundation is a registeredcharity, all green tag purchases from BEF are tax deductible although the US BEF requiresthat 90–95% of the revenues for green tags made available to power generators bereinvested in new renewable energy projects. BEF also retains a large portion of therevenues to cover administrative cost, finance watershed improvement projects, and tofeed a fund to reinvest in new renewable power capacity.generating capacity by 2009. The RenewableEnergy Credit (REC) Program becameeffective July 1, 2001 and is based on anelectronic trading system. Electricity retailerscan either create their own RECs bygenerating their own renewable electricity,buy RECs from independent powerproducers throughout Texas, or pay a fine ofa maximum of $50 per MWh (double theaverage market price of RECs). RECs can bebanked for up to three years. In addition,deficit banking of up to 5% is allowed forthe first two years. Existing plants (inoperation before September 1999) are noteligible for RECs, but retailers with existingrenewable capacities have an advantagebecause their share of the obligation isreduced, based on “offsets” created fromthese existing facilities [NREL 2000, p. 7](see also chapter 3.2.4).5.4.2 AustraliaThe Commonwealth of Australia’s RenewableEnergy (Electricity) Act 2000, effective sinceApril 1st, 2001, requires retailers to buyelectricity from renewable sources to reducegreenhouse gas emissions and to ensure thatrenewable power sources are ecologicallysustainable. The measure also established aRenewable Energy Certificates (RECs)scheme for Australia, including a mandatedrenewable power target of 300 GWh in 2001and 9,500 GWh in 2010.The REC system provides significant extraincome for renewable power (see Chapter 3.4).One REC is created for every MWh ofelectricity generated from accreditedrenewable power generators. TheseRenewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are soldwith the electricity they represent or can be132
Promoting Green Power in Canada Pollution Probesold separately in a market just for the RECs.The wholesale buyers of electricity who havean obligation under the Act to sell renewablepower have to demonstrate compliance withtheir obligation by surrendering theappropriate number of RECs to the Regulatoreach year on February 14.RECs are sold to utilities by renewable powergenerators, not to residential or industrialcustomers. The utilities have to comply withincreasing amounts of renewable powergeneration specified in the Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act. Certification and trade iscontrolled by the government’s Office of theRenewable Energy Regulator.Following is a summary of the rulesgoverning the Australian system:Maintenance of a registry of owners ofeligible power stations: Individuals mustbe registered before they can seekaccreditation of power stations. Registeredentities will each be allocated a uniqueregistration number that is entered onto theRegistry of Registered Persons. The registry ispublicly available via the Internet.Accreditation of eligible power stations:Renewable power stations must beaccredited before Renewable EnergyCertificates can be created for theirgeneration. The accreditation processincludes:• verification that a power station is usingeligible renewable energy sources;• establishment of a baseline (indicatingthe average existing level of renewablegeneration prior to 1 January 1997); and,• estimation of the amount of additionalenergy that will be generated andconfirmation that the energy generated isbeing used.Registration of Renewable EnergyCertificates: Once a power station isaccredited and has generated electricityabove its baseline, it may seek to create oneRenewable Energy Certificate (REC) for eachMWh of eligible renewable power generatedand delivered to a grid, end point user ordirectly to a retailer or wholesaler. Someinstallations of solar water heaters may alsobe eligible for RECs. In most cases, thenumber of RECs that may be created forsolar water heaters will be deemed in theregulations (however, some very largeindustrial applications may need to providesystem-specific modeling to be eligible).Certificates are created in an electronic formvia the Internet. They are not valid until theyare registered by the Regulator. The Regulatormay check the validity of a certificate prior toallowing it to be registered. Any transfer ofownership or retirement of certificates willalso be recorded in this registry. Thecertificates have serial numbers identifyingthe person that generated the electricity, theaccredited power station, the year the powerwas generated, and a number for each MWhregistered that year, in the format 0071-WD00NS01–2001–000001. The RECs arevalid indefinitely.Monitoring and compliance: TheRenewable Energy Regulator, appointed forfive years, is responsible for ensuringcompliance with the scheme. This involvesoverseeing the surrender of RECs from liableparties in discharging their liability. If a partycannot meet its liability, and the shortfall isgreater than 10 per cent of the total liabilityin a given year, the Regulator must impose apenalty on the party. The role of the Officeof the Renewable Energy Regulator includes:133
Page 1 and 2:
Promoting Green Power in Canada Pol
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90: Promoting Green Power in Canada Pol
Page 139: Promoting Green Power in Canada Pol
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 204:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209:
show all

Promoting Green Power in Canada - Centre for Human Settlements

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?