We often have the opportunity to educate people about wind energy. The market and the technology have come a long way, and its increased and visible presence creates curiosity.

We often address questions about how we “sell” the wind to our customers, whether in partnership with an electric utility, or directly to a customer. We sell “Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)”, a widely recognized mechanism to purchase wind energy at your home or business, without building a wind turbine.

Some confusion about RECs occasionally pops up in the media. We felt a recent example misrepresented the REC and created an inaccurate portrait of our customers. We sent this response in an effort to set the record straight:

We were surprised at the confusion included in your recent article on wind power credits (Wind ‘credits’ not as green as they seem, 2/18).

All renewable grid-connected power, including the proposed offshore Delaware wind project, track energy deliveries into the grid through the same certificates.  As customers, we all draw our power from that same electric grid, which includes a mix of all types of power generation.  Without a customer agreeing to pay the higher cost of wind generation, which is tracked by the certificate, there isn’t sufficient revenue to finance the wind farms.  This is true for the proposed Delaware offshore wind project, and for any proposed onshore project as well.

Locally produced clean power brings environmental and economic benefits to the region.  Both the proposed Delaware offshore project and the Pennsylvania wind generation supplying PECO Wind Customers accomplish that.

Wind project developers depend on credit revenue to build a project, and a vibrant voluntary market is vital to create those opportunities.  Customer demand from the PECO Wind program and commercial purchases like the Philadelphia Airport purchase have directly driven new wind project development in the Mid-Atlantic states. Every new wind project includes the credit revenue stream in its financial plan; it’s not simply a “Wall Street certificate”, as the article suggests.

The National Association of Attorneys General recognized almost ten years ago that credits are the only vehicle available for the purchase of renewable energy from grid-connected projects and should therefore be considered the equivalent of the actual electricity.

Paul Copleman
Community Energy, Inc.