Part II of the Rethinking the Impact of RECs webinar series continues the conversation on how Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) shape renewable energy markets and investment decisions. Building on insights from developers, investors, and market participants in Developer Insights on Financial Modeling to Describe Renewable Energy Certificate Impacts and presented at the first webinar—showing that academic narratives about RECs often fail to reflect the realities of project developers—this discussion turns to Dr. Eric O’Shaughnessy’s more assertive work funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That new research uses market data and economic modeling to reexamine long-held assumptions about the role of unbundled RECs. It provides a rigorous theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding how voluntary REC demand operates as a meaningful driver of renewable energy development—challenging earlier claims and reframing the conversation around additionality, causation, and market function.
Todd Jones (Center for Resource Solutions) and Dr. Eric O’Shaughnessy (Clean Kilowatts, LLC) will explore how developer experience, fundamental economic principles, and market-level analysis together provide a more complete picture of how RECs influence renewable energy investment and deployment. The discussion will consider what these insights mean for voluntary buyers, policymakers, standards, and the future role of RECs in the clean energy transition.
Speakers
- Dr. Eric O’Shaughnessy, Clean Kilowatts, LLC
- Todd Jones, Center for Resource Solutions
Key Topics
- The progression from developer perspectives to market analysis and economic modeling
- Findings from the Market-Based Approach to measuring REC impacts and the cumulative contribution of voluntary markets to U.S. renewable energy deployment
- Why the economics of RECs matter for understanding market impacts
- How unbundled RECs directly influence developer finance and project viability
- Putting this into practice: implications for GHG accounting and corporate clean electricity procurement decisions
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