Project will simulate cross-border trade in ‘green’ energy certificates

The European Renewable Electricity Certificate Trading Project (RECerT) will run for 18 months, raising awareness of ‘green’ energy certificates and, through the use of an internet-based simulation, demonstrating that trade in such certificates is possible both domestically and between different European states.

“The purpose of RECerT is to alert people to the possibility of operating in this field of trading,” Christopher Crookall-Fallon, RECerT’s project manager, told edie. “One of the values of the green certificate idea is that it is becoming a live idea earlier than carbon credits trading.”

Crookall-Fallon expects RECerT’s trading simulation to begin in the autumn, with virtual renewable generators and electricity suppliers participating.

Although Crookall-Fallon believes that renewable energy certificate trading has a bright future, he thinks that cross-border trade in the certificates will be slow to start. “It’s not going to be a high-volume, high-value market from the start,” he says.

Trade in ‘green’ energy certificates has been taking place in the Netherlands for a year, and Crookall-Fallon thinks that UK electricity suppliers will also be interested as they seek to meet the renewable energy targets included in the country’s forthcoming Utilities Bill (see related story).