RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS

A REPORT

SUBMITTED BY

Name – Arka Bhattacharyya Registration No.- 201770100720007

In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

Of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

In

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

CALCUTTA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Uluberia –711316
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to convey my sincere thanks to our respected Mr. Nirvik Banerjee Assistant
professor for giving me the opportunity to display my knowledge through this topic. I would
like to thank our principal-in-charge Dr. Priyabrata Sarkar, and our respected faculty of
department of Mechanical Engineering for motivating us. I heartily thank our library staff and
management for their extensive support by providing the information and resources that helped
me to complete this topic successfully.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE No.

ABSTRACT 4

INTRODUCTION 5

HOW RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS WORKS 5

HOW RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS ARE GENARATED 6

CONCLUSION 6

REFERENCE 7
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ABSTRACT

A renewable energy credit, or REC is a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the
environmental, social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation. RECs are issued
when one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a
renewable energy resource. This paper briefly describes the basic feature of Renewable Energy Credits.

KEYWORDS – REC, Renewable Energy Certificates.

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INTRODUCTION

Renewable Energy credits (also known as renewable energy certificates or RECs) represent the energy
generated by renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power facilities. Buying RECs is not equivalent
to buying electricity. Instead, RECs represent the clean energy attributes of renewable electricity.

How Renewable Energy Credits Works

Most renewable energy generators participate in a REC tracking system, and they're the ones who receive the
certificates when they sell their electricity on the wholesale power market. Those generators are then free to
pass on the RECs they receive to another entity.
Once a generator releases energy onto the grid through transmission lines, the electrons simply follow the path
of least resistance. Electrons from a solar plant merge with electrons from a coal power plant, and when you
turn on the lights at your corporate headquarters, it's impossible to tell where those electrons came from,
exactly.
To go "100% renewable," a corporation could put solar panels on every roof of every building and generate
enough to cover their needs, but for most corporations, that's impractical, if not impossible. RECs provide a
way for corporations to pay for renewable energy that gets added to the grid for everyone to use, and to take
credit for that energy. If they want to go "100% renewable," they can purchase enough RECs to cover every
megawatt hour of energy that they purchase from their utility company or retail electricity provider.
Corporations have many different options to acquire RECs from clean energy generators (we'll get to those
later in our REC series). Once you've acquired a REC, you need to "retire" it in order to be able to use it in
your sustainability reporting. When you retire a REC through the associated tracking system, it cannot be sold
again, which means no one else can lay claim to that unit of renewable generation.

Fig.1
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How renewable energy credits are generated

A REC is produced when a renewable energy source generates one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity and
delivers it to the grid. For example, if a wind power facility produces 5 MWh of electricity, they have 5 credits
to either keep or sell. If you or your business buys those credits, you are buying the ‘renewable’ aspect of the
electricity from the wind farm, and you can say that 5MWh of your electricity use came from a renewable
source.

A REC that has been sold once cannot be purchased again. All renewable energy credits are uniquely
numbered and generally include information such as where they were generated, the type of renewable
resource they came from, and a date stamp of generation. The exchange of RECs is tracked and recorded.

Fig.2

Conclusion

Renewable Energy Credits allows the renewable energy attributes of energy to be sold or traded separately
from the physical unit of energy. Since the Renewable Energy Certificate removes potential location and
physical gridlocks, both consumers and suppliers gain flexibility in the marketplace when implementing
different forms of renewable energy. RECs are also a successful tool to meet Renewable portfolio Standards
that are required state to state. Taking into account the different implications and potential issues of Renewable
Energy Certificates, along with how maximize the effect of these implications while eliminating these issues,
Renewable Energy Certificates can be an integral part to jump start the wide use of renewable energy across
the nation.
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References

1. https://www.leveltenenergy.com/post/intro-renewable-energy-
certificates

2. https://www.energysage.com/other-clean-options/renewable-
energy-credits-recs/

3. https://www.indiantextilemagazine.in/hirdaramani-takes-bold-new-
steps-in-transparency-and-accountability-for-renewable-energy-
use-with-i-rec-standard/