As part of its new standard, Gold Standard for the Global Goals, Gold Standard will launch a new quality label for renewable energy market instruments. 

RECS International members are requested to contact the secretariat with their thoughts and considerations related to the development of a “multiple-delivery” standard contract. 

RECS International is pleased to welcome a new member: Gaia Environment from Singapore.

The Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) and REScoop.EU are hosting the session “Involving consumers in the energy transition – accountability, CSR and carbon accounting” during the EU Sustainlable Energy Week (EUSEW). 

Eurelectric has prepared a legislative proposal to the European Commission to revise the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) on some crucial points. Like RECS International and many other stakeholders, they propose that the intentions for auctioning the Guarantee of Origin be omitted in the final version of this important document. For various reasons the intended auctioning system will be detrimental to a carefully constructed GO market. More about this can be read in this news item. You can read the Eurelectric paper here.

RECS International is pleased to announce a new member: Natural Capital Partners. With 19 years’ experience and a global network of project partners, Natural Capital Partners works with their clients to deliver high quality solutions that ensure immediate, positive impact on the world’s natural capital. They work with more than 300 clients in 33 countries to ensure their environmental programmes deliver value for their business. RECS International is looking forward to working with Natural Capital Partners and supporting each other in meeting the demand for more renewable electricity. For more information on Natural Capital Partners please visit their website 

Minor corrections have been made to the published EECS Rules 7v9, to account for the agreed changes to Reviewers, as agreed at the last General Meeting. These occur on pages 13, 18 and 61. For more information please contact the secretariat at secretariat@recs.org

In an effort to strengthen consumer choice as well as clarify post-2020 regulations, on 30thNovember 2016 the European Commission released its vision for a new Renewable Energy Directive (REDII). However, there is one critical place where end-users, market players, environmental groups and many national governments all disagree. In article 19:2 of the draft text there is mention of a mandatory auction of Guarantees of Origin (GOs), the ‘currency’ that drives the renewable electricity market. There is considerable concern that this auction, in its current form, would take away consumer choice in the electricity market and restrict the ability to support specific renewable projects.

There is a wide range of compliance and voluntary instruments available on the electricity market to promote the generation of renewable electricity across Europe, such as Feed-In tariffs (FITs),  feed-in premiums (FIPs) and investment grants. While support schemes for renewables can stimulate growth in terms of production, the demand-driven focus is lost. This tends to lead to market distortion, resulting in an inefficient allocation of renewables (e.g. new solar production in regions with a low radiation input). Moreover they tend to have an impact on grid balancing and other regulatory frameworks as such EU support schemes have varying degrees of inefficiency.  Moving towards market-based support schemes provides more efficient ways to use tax money.