Energy Savings Certificates – The Currency of the New Green Economy
Still in an early stage of development, ESC markets can play a role in fostering energy efficiency.
For a number of years, the concept of creating and trading verified fixed units of energy savings, through energy efficiency or load management, has been proffered as a vehicle to increase the amount of savings implemented in the United States. However, the country has only started to adopt energy savings certificates (ESCs), sometimes referred to as “white tags,” in the past two years. The energy savings analog to renewable energy certificates (RECs), ESCs have the potential to bring the same market-based flexibility to energy efficiency that RECs have brought to renewable energy.
Energy efficiency has been called “the first fuel” to signify that saving energy and using electricity more efficiently are often considered foundational steps in a multipronged environmental strategy. To paraphrase one oft-repeated catchphrase, “the cleanest MWh of electricity is the one that is never used.”
Many policy makers consider efficiency to be the most cost-effective solution to address rapidly increasing demands on congested transmission systems. Following rolling brownouts during the California energy crisis of 2000-01, several Western state utility commissions approved increased spending for efficiency.
Today, as energy efficiency is gaining a popular foothold as a critical solution to increasing energy prices, energy security, and global climate change, regulators and market participants are giving more attention to ways to encourage its adoption.
In a hearing before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on July 30, 2008, in which Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) suggested ESC trading to the committee, Jonathan Koomey of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) testified that energy efficiency is the “fastest, cheapest, and cleanest” way to address energy security and climate risks.
More information is available at www.negawattbox.com www.perpetualgreen.net
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For more information on availability and government grants visit http://www.perpetualgreen.net. Installation is not included and a qualified installer is recommended.
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