Green Power Market Documents

The Guide to Purchasing Green Power provides current and potential buyers of green power with information about green power purchasing. The guide includes information about the different types of green power products, the benefits of green power purchasing, and how to capture the greatest benefit from your purchase. First published in 2004 and previously revised in 2010, this latest version of the guide provides an overview of green power markets and describes the necessary steps to procure green power. The guide is the product of a cooperative effort between EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, World Resources Institute, Center for Resource Solutions, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The Energy Attribute Certificates (pdf) (393.37 KB) document provides an overview about energy attribute certificates (EACs), which are a contractual instrument to convey information about a unit of energy, including the resource used to create the energy and its associated emissions. EACs are an established tool for maintaining transparency and clarity in energy sector transactions, as well as a mechanism for facilitating credible innovations that can increase the pace and scale of clean energy growth. The document describes examples, common uses, and potential new roles for EACs to meet new consumer and policy objectives around energy decarbonization.

The Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) Arbitrage (pdf) guidance document describes this green power procurement strategy used by electricity consumers to simultaneously meet two objectives: 1) decrease the cost of their renewable electricity use and 2) substantiate renewable electricity use and carbon footprint reduction claims. The strategy is used by consumers installing self-financed renewable electricity projects or consumers who purchase renewable electricity directly from a renewable electricity project, such as through a power purchase agreement (PPA).

The Offsets and RECs: What's the Difference? (pdf) guidance document provides an overview of what offsets and RECs are and the differences between them. It explains why and how an organization might use one or both and also addresses common misconceptions.

For this report The National Assessment of Consumer Access to Green Power Supply: Leadership and Impact Consideration, EPA conducted a nationwide analysis of consumer access to green power supply options to evaluate relative access to green power in both residential and non-residential consumer segments. Key findings of this 2018 analysis indicate that access to green power supply options across the US or for specific consumer segments. For more information on the Access Paper and Leadership, please visit the Emerging Issues page.

Renewable Electricity Procurement on Behalf of Others: A Corporate Reporting Guide - a new practice paper in response to the growing interest in accounting for renewable electricity use across corporate value chains to address scope 3 emissions. This paper aims to address common challenges that may accompany the reporting of such corporate efforts to reduce supply chain emissions.

Guidance for Collecting & Understanding Relevant Policy and Market Information for Renewable Project Development is designed to help organizations collect relevant policy and market information in relation to the development of renewable energy projects. It reviews policies, incentives, and financing options that might affect an organization's ability to own (or contract with) on- or off-site sources of renewable energy generation. It includes space for notetaking to help users track policy information specific to their organization's situation.

The Green Power Supply Options Comparison Table (pdf) is a user-friendly way to compare the different characteristics of supply options, such as the ease of transaction, relative availability, and impact on new supply. The table indicates the relative likelihood that a green power supply option has a particular characteristic.

The Guide to Making Claims About Your Solar Power Use (pdf) describes best practices for appropriately explaining and characterizing solar power activities and the fundamental importance of RECs for solar power use claims. This guidance is primarily focused on claims associated with on-site projects but is equally relevant for off-site owned projects.

Other documents that are informative on green market issues:

• Power Purchase Agreement Checklist for State and Local Governments (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) (pdf)
• Purchasing Power: Best Practices Guide to Collaborative Solar Procurement (World Resources Institute)
• Solar Powering Your Community: Guide for Local Governments (U.S. Department of Energy)
• Getting Started: What to ask the Developer (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Indian Energy) (pdf)
• The Customer's Guide to Solar Power Purchase Agreements (The Rahus Institute) (pdf)