Renewable Energy Certificates and Renewable Portfolio Standards

In recent years, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) have surfaced as one of the more viable of several environmental entitlements supporting a shift to cleaner energy. This is due at least in part to the fact that the regulatory mechanisms supporting these certificates—most notably, renewable portfolio standards (RPSs)—have emerged more quickly than mechanisms supporting other types of entitlements such as cap-and-trade systems giving rise to markets for carbon credits or offsets. In this article we will describe the regulatory landscape for RECs and what opportunities and challenges they afford.

The full article was published by Biomass Power & Thermal on April 29, 2011. Read more.