Surge in RECs Volume Just Beginning as Company Forecasts Five-Fold Increase in 2022; Online Auctions Provide Price Discovery, Cost Compression for Renewable Purchases
PVTIME – Transparent Energy, the national leader in online energy procurement and advisory services, on December 8 announced that it has helped clients purchase more than 2.6 million RECs since May 2020, greening over 2.6 billion kWh of electricity use across commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors, including large community choice aggregations (CCAs), cities and towns. The high volume of RECs purchased over the Transparent Energy online auction platform – one the company sees increasing by 5x in 2022 – signals widespread adoption of RECs in the decarbonization efforts of large energy buyers and a growing preference among them for procuring renewable energy products via a competitive, transparent process.
“RECs have been around for a long time, but their strategic value has increased significantly – both as a ‘bridge’ to Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with renewable generators that may take years to develop and as a simple, verified way to add renewables to one’s portfolio in the near-term – as corporate sustainability efforts have gone mainstream,” said David Braun, Vice President, Partnerships and Renewable Project Origination, Transparent Energy. “We see the massive uptick in RECs purchases by our clients over the last year only accelerating as RECs provide a practical, cost-effective way to reduce an energy user’s carbon footprint.”
Manufacturers, logistics firms, REITs, restaurant chains, cities, colleges, and CCAs are among the large energy buyers turning to Transparent Energy for help procuring RECs as part of their near- and long-term energy-buying strategies. Leveraging the price discovery and margin compression provided by Transparent Energy’s competitive online auctions (profiled recently in Urban Land Institute’s Urban Land Magazine), end-users are finding RECs to be an affordable way to offset the ‘brown’ component of the electricity they consume, while making a demonstrable investment in the growth of the renewable energy market.
“It’s easy for large energy buyers to think that on-site solar installations or PPAs are the only way to reach their net zero carbon goals, but RECs provide immediate value to the purchaser’s carbon bottom line, offsetting carbon emissions and ensuring ongoing investment in renewables that benefit both the buyer and the planet,” said Luke McAuliffe, President, Transparent Energy. “Couple that with a process for buying RECs in the most efficient, cost-effective, and transparent manner possible, and it’s no wonder we are seeing a record surge in demand, one we believe will increase exponentially in 2022 and beyond as both the public and private sectors double down on meeting their sustainability goals.”
