Defining and certifying green power

Studies have shown that as electric utilities restructure from monopolistic utilities to competitive open access retailers, there is an increasing demand by individual and institutional customers for green power. In the United States, 17 electricity suppliers have offered customers the opportunity to buy energy generated from renewable sources such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and biomass. Twenty other utilities are conducting market research in preparation for offering a similar program. It was suggested that in order to help the customers make their choice based on accurate information, generating facilities should be obligated to provide credible information about the environmental performance of electricity supply through standardized environmental profile labels. A list of agreed upon environmental indicators and performance levels must be established so that the 'environmental friendliness' of different generating facilities can be measured. One of the problems in tackling this issue is that there is disagreement about what constitutes green power. Opinions range from wind and solar generation being the only two forms of green power, to including even natural gas and nuclear energy (i.e. under the right conditions). The two programs that are used for the certification of green power in Canada and the United States are Canada's Environmental Choice Program and California's Green-e Renewable Electricity Branding Program. This report describes the two programs and summarizes the results of interviews conducted on the definition and certification of green power. 15 refs