The EU Directive on thepromotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the
internal electricity market (Directive 2001/77/EC) asks Member States,
among others, to issue guarantees of origin for renewable electricity
on request. Member States are obliged to appoint one or more independent
bodies to certify that green electricity comes from renewable energy
sources. These bodies will supervise the issue of the guarantees of
origin (GO). The Directive stipulates that these bodies should be in
place no later than 27 October 2003.
The RE-GO project has
been conducted in the framework of the EU Altener programme and aims
to:
1.
review the implementation and use of GO in the EU,
2.
analyse the GO as a tool for renewable energy policy formulation,
3.
analyse the GO as a tracking method and the problem of multiple
counting.
The present report covers
the second objective. The analysis presented in the report involves
an identification of the potential interactions between GO and various
renewable energy support policies which are currently implemented in
the Member States, and an evaluation of the potential role GO can play
in facilitating these policies. The analysis covers the interactions
between GO and indicative targets, Tradable Renewable Electricity Certificate
(TREC) systems, feed-in-tariffs, fiscal incentives, electricity labels,
electricity disclosure, the Renewable Energy Certificate System (RECS)
and the EU Emission Trading Scheme.
The GO implementation
design varies considerably among the Member States. Some countries have
implemented a GO system that does not go beyond the minimum requirements
of the Directive, whilst other countries have included additional information
to enable GO to facilitate national renewable energy policy mechanisms.
The report concludes
that GO systems based on the minimum requirements of the EU Directive
2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy
sources, cannot be linked to national renewable energy support mechanisms,
and, therefore, can easily lead to inefficiencies, in transparencies
and also to multiple counting of the environmental benefits. It is recommended,
therefore, to implement a GO system that goes beyond the minimum requirements
so that it can be fully integrated into the national support mechanisms.
In this way GO can become a key component of the national renewable
energy policy. In the longer term, a fully harmonised GO system across
the European Union would be advisable to avoid duplication of verification
and monitoring efforts, and to effectively prevent multiple counting
of environmental benefits.