Step-by-Step Approach to Granular Certificates (GCs) Creation, Matching and Claim
Step 1: Gain Insight: Understand the problem and potential solutions.
The Problem → Ineffective Clean Energy Claims
The climate clock is ticking faster than ever before. Rapid decarbonization is a necessity for a cleaner future. Electricity alone accounts for 40% of emissions of CO2 emissions (IEA 2023 Report). The commercial and Industry (C&I) sector alone consumes 60% of electricity worldwide (IEA 2022). However, the options consumers have today to claim “100%” renewable energy are flawed as they do not respect the physical realities of the grid. The path to 100% allows “annual” matching of consumption with clean supply, effectively allowing continued fossil reliance in certain hours of the year. There is also little consideration for whether the clean power could be delivered to the consumer. Energy Attribute Certificates are a critical tool for tracking unique claims to clean power globally, but, they are not time-stamped creating a significant barrier to more effective clean energy markets and more robust claims.
Refer to Getting Started with EnergyTag page
The Solution → Granular Certificates for Granular Matching
It’s time to fix clean energy markets and carbon accounting. Many academic studies (Princeton, Denmark Technical University, TU Berlin, IEA) and key stakeholders (EU, US Government, EU TSO) concluded that Granular Matching where sourcing time-stamped Granular Certificates match consumption in the same hour and within deliverable geographical boundaries is the solution for greater decarbonization, transparency and better reflection of grid realities. Crucially, hourly matching also creates new demand signals for the technologies needed to complement renewables such as storage and clean-firm which are too often ignored with annual matching strategies. That’s why EnergyTag was created, to enable standardization and promotion of Granular Certificates and Matching.
Granular Matching is Happening already !!!
It is great to see 24/7 carbon-free energy being a reality as the granular certificate market gets more traction with the addition of more than 20 case studies across the globe.
Refer to the EnergyTa’s Blog on the Feasibility of Granular Certificates.