Corporate GPM Guide 6: Next Generation Green Power Products in North America

The sixth installment describes three “next generation” green power products tailored to the needs of corporate customers in voluntary markets. The three “next generation” products addressed in this publication include:

• Green power using nationally sourced RECs: By accessing RECs from the most cost-competitive facilities in the nation, electricity providers can lower the cost of green power as well as increase renewable resource options for customers.

• Long-term fixed-price green power: Provides customers with environmentally friendly power that also stabilizes corporate energy costs or serves as a hedge against volatile electricity rates.

• Green contracts for differences (CFD): A financial contract that allows a customer to support renewable energy development, acquire RECs, and hedge against fluctuating electricity rates - but does not involve the customer receiving physical power.

This Corporate Guide describes each product, discusses benefits to both retail electricity providers and corporate customers, and includes case examples. The report analyzes these three products first in the U.S. market context, including both regulated and deregulated states, and then reviews the applicability of these products in Canada and Mexico.

The Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets is designed to help corporations understand, explore, and evaluate renewable energy opportunities. Published by the World Resources Institute, the Guide consists of a series of installments that will explore different aspects of corporate markets for green power, including:

The business case for green power

• Major green power technologies including biomass, landfill gas (for electricity and for direct use), and wind

• Strategies for corporate procurement of green power and methods for evaluating green energy opportunities

• Policies for addressing obstacles to the creation of a robust corporate market for green power.

Installments will include useful tools, strategies, and case examples of corporate experiences with green power.

The series will be based on WRI’s experience with the Green Power Market Development Group. Installments will be published approximately every quarter over 18 months (starting July, 2002). If you would like free hard copies of installments to be mailed to you, please complete the mailing form.