The decision by Europe’s highest court in the case of Essent Belgium NV v Vlaamse Reguleringsinstantie voor de Elektriciteits- en Gasmarkt, better known as the ‘Essent Case’ was not surprising for those who followed the earlier Aland Vindkraft case (C-573/12) and ruling by the European Court of Justice.

According to the press release the Commission started an, “in-depth investigation on the EEG 2012 Act” over concerns about the compatibility of tariff reductions for some energy users. The result of the investigation can be seen in the EEG 2014 which will organize tenders, “for up to 5% of the tendered capacity to installations located in Member States which have concluded a cooperation agreement with Germany".

RECS International, together with our members and stakeholders, are happy to announce the venue and date of the upcoming 2015 RECS Market Meeting.

CDP is amending its questionnaires for 2015.  CDP runs an annual public consultation process on these proposed amendments to its questionnaires, prior to their publication. During this period, CDP welcomes all stakeholders to review the proposed changes to its questionnaires and submit comments.

At the request of RE-DISS, RECS International has prepared draft supplier disclosure guidelines. It is the opinion of RECS International that guidelines are needed to improve transparency to the electricity end-consumer. While primarily a concern for small and medium size consumers who purchase ‘bundled’ electricity products from their electricity supplier, large consumers will also benefit from clear, transparent information about the product they are receiving. The current practices of many supply companies vary and the opportunity for RE-DISS to provide voluntary guidelines could provide a movement towards supplier product standardization. 

The I-REC Standard has the aim of spreading the principles of energy attribute tracking systems, worldwide, to promote a consistent and verifiable product that enables a reliable and transparent consumer choice for renewable electricity.  RECS International has generally supported such market initiatives in their attempt to bring consumers improved information about their electricity products.

Facebook, Walmart, HP, Mars, GM and Intel, among others, request six improvements to the current U.S. renewable energy marketplace in a recent report published by WWF. 

Early on July 1st, 2014 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in favor of Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) in the case brought by Alands Vindkraft. The ruling did not adhere to the earlier Opinion of the Advocate General which may have found Article 3(3) of the European Directive 2009/28/EC, The Renewable Energy Directive, invalid.  Article 3(3) allows for national governments to deny access to their renewable electricity support schemes for electricity producers located outside their national borders.  In doing so, the Opinion of the Advocate General explained that Article 3(3) of the Directive contradicted Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which guarantees the free movement of goods within Europe. 

Working with the RECS International Legal Task Force the RECS International Secretariat has published the revised European Energy Certificate System – Guarantee of Origin Standard Agreement for Single Delivery.  More than 35 active participants representing 25 different organizations helped the RECS International secretariat shape the standard agreement.