2019 Green-e Verification Report (2018 Data)
Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), through its Green-e® certification programs, certified over 62 million megawatt-hours in retail transactions in 2018, representing an overall increase of 4% compared to 2017 sales. This is the highest number of certified retail MWh to date, and enough to power over half of U.S. households for a month.

Summary

 

Retail sales certified by the Green-e® Energy program reached over 62 million megawatt hours (MWh) in 2018, the highest number of certified retail MWh to date. Green-e® currently certifies nearly 1.5% of the total U.S. electricity mix,1 or enough to power over half of U.S. households for a month. More than half of the installed wind capacity2 in the U.S. is participating in Green-e® Energy certified transactions, and 2018 saw over 3.7 million MWh come from solar generation, almost 80% more than 2017. The majority of the energy supplying certified sales came from facilities less than five years old. In 2018 there were over 1.24 million retail purchasers of Green-e® certified renewable energy, including over 61,000 businesses. 2018 saw increases in sales and customers of certified utility green pricing products, REC products and PPA/VPPA products, and community choice aggregation products, resulting in all-time highs for each of those certification categories—more retail customers than ever before are purchasing Green-e® Energy certified products.

 

As the global retail standard for carbon offset certification, Green-e® Climate certification brings chain-of-custody oversight to the voluntary offset market. The Green-e® Climate program provides critical retail protections and assurances for buyers, sellers, and project standards, including confidence in product marketing and overall quality.

The Green-e® Climate program certified more than 496,000 carbon offsets in 2018, which is an all-time high for the program. Additionally, more Green-e® Climate certified offsets were sold into international markets than ever before.

 

Through Green-e® Marketplace, CRS verifies that the renewable energy purchased or generated by participants meet the strict environmental and consumer protection standards of the Green-e® Energy certification program, and that each participant purchases qualifying amounts relative to electricity usage. By participating in Green-e Marketplace, participants are licensed the Green-e® logo for use with their renewable energy claims. Since 1997, the Green-e® logo has served as a nationally recognized symbol to help consumers identify superior, certified environmental commodities.

In 2018, 26 companies participated in the Green-e® Marketplace program, with approximately 700 products certified.

Program Reports

GREEN-E® ENERGY

Green-e® Energy is the leading certification program for voluntary renewable energy products in North America. On behalf of consumers buying renewable energy products certified by Green-e® Energy, the program requires that such products undergo an independent annual audit to demonstrate compliance with the Green-e® Energy program’s rigorous consumer protection and environmental standards. The Green-e® Energy program requires that sellers of certified renewable energy products provide full and accurate information to their customers, deliver the renewable energy they promise, and source from renewable energy generators that meet the Green-e® Energy program’s resource eligibility requirements, developed by stakeholders and the independent Green-e® Governance Board over 20 years.

As the public’s awareness of the impacts of pollution arising from electricity generation, energy security issues, and sustainable economic development has risen, the demand for renewable energy has increased greatly, as shown here. In fact, voluntary certified renewable energy sales in the U.S. have increased an average of 13% each year since 2015. When the Green-e® Energy program began in 1997, it was the first certification program of its kind, and it has remained the most respected renewable energy certification program in North America.

Green-e Energy Certified Options

Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy products are sold in the following different options:

Green Pricing Programs. Renewable electricity sold by electric utilities in regulated electricity markets, offered in addition to the renewable electricity included in standard electricity service. Includes Green Tariffs offered to larger commercial or industrial customers.

Competitive Renewable Electricity. Similar to a green pricing program, but sold by an electric service provider (ESP) in a deregulated electricity market.

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). A REC represents the non-electricity, renewable attributes of one MWh of renewable electricity generation, including all the environmental attributes, and is a tradable commodity that can be sold separately from the underlying electricity. RECs allow for a larger and more efficient national market for renewable energy. The REC product type includes PPAs for which only the REC portion of the purchase is certified as well as VPPAs.

Community Choice Aggregation. Also known as Municipal Aggregation, CCAs allow cities and counties to aggregate customers in a regulated market within a defined jurisdiction to secure alternative electricity supply contracts on a community-wide basis.

Direct and On-Site Certification. Direct Purchasing is a purchase made directly from renewable generators as an alternative to purchasing from a utility, competitive electricity supplier, or a renewable energy certificate marketer, while On-Site renewable energy is consumed at the same location where it is produced.

Green-e® Energy Participant Overview

352 companies participated in Green-e® Energy in 2018, including 66 sellers offering 70 Green-e® Energy certified REC products, 261 utility green pricing program participants offering 42 certified green pricing programs , 11 competitive electricity suppliers offering 17 certified renewable electricity programs, 9 Community Choice Aggregation sellers offering 10 products, and 5 entities with 6 different certified Direct or Onsite options.

  • 3 Phases Renewables
  • 3Degrees
  • ACT Commodities Inc. (Amsterdam Capital Trading B.V.)
  • AEP Energy
  • Agera Energy
  • Aggressive Energy
  • Alameda Municipal Power
  • Alliant Energy
  • Ambit Energy, LP
  • Ameren Missouri
  • Apple, Inc.
  • Arcadia Power
  • Austin Energy
  • Avangrid
  • Azalea Solar, LLC
  • Blue Delta Energy, LLC
  • Blue Spruce Energy Services
  • Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF)
  • Calpine Energy Solutions, LLC
  • Carbon Solutions Group (CSG)
  • CBL Markets
  • Champion Energy Marketing, LLC
  • City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU)
  • Clean Power Alliance (CPA)
  • CleanChoice Energy
  • CleanPowerSF
  • Clear Energy Brokerage & Consulting, LLC
  • Community Energy, Inc.
  • Constellation NewEnergy
  • Consumers Energy Company
  • Cypress Creek Renewables
  • Direct Energy
  • Dominion Virginia Power
  • DTE Energy
  • Dynegy
  • East Bay Community Energy (ECBE)
  • East Coast Power & Gas, LLC
  • ECOHZ
  • EDF Energy Services
  • ENGIE Resources
  • First Climate Markets
  • FirstEnergy Solutions Corp.
  • Good Energy
  • Green Mountain Energy Company
  • Green Power EMC
  • Greenlight Energy Group LLC
  • Idaho Power Company
  • Indianapolis Power & Light Company (AES)
  • J.P. Morgan Ventures Energy Corporation
  • JEA
  • Just Energy
  • Kiwi Energy
  • LG&E and KU Energy
  • Liberty Power
  • L’Oreal Operations
  • Luminant Energy Company, LLC
  • Marina Energy
  • MC Squared Energy Services
  • MCE Clean Energy
  • MidAmerican Energy Company Energy Trading
  • MidAmerican Energy Services
  • Moffett Solar 1, LLC
  • MP2 Energy
  • NativeEnergy
  • Natural Capital Partners
  • NextEra Energy Resources, LLC
  • North American Power and Gas, LLC (NA Power)
  • Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO)
  • NRG Business Solutions
  • OneEnergy Renewables
  • Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)
  • PacifiCorp
  • Peninsula Clean Energy
  • Pine Gate Renewables, LLC
  • Platte River Power Authority (PRPA)
  • Plymouth Rock Energy
  • Portland General Electric (PGE)
  • Powerex Corp
  • Puget Sound Energy (PSE)
  • Reliant Energy
  • Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
  • San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)
  • Santee Cooper
  • Schneider Electric
  • Seattle City Light
  • Silicon Valley Clean Energy
  • Silicon Valley Power – City of Santa Clara (SVP)
  • South Plains Wind Energy II, LLC
  • Southern California Edison (SCE)
  • SP Cactus Flats Wind Energy LLC
  • Spring Power and Gas
  • Steelcase Inc.
  • Sterling Planet, Inc.
  • Stream Energy
  • Swiss Carbon Assets
  • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  • TXU Energy
  • Vivorex LLC
  • We Energies
  • Westar Energy, Inc.
  • Western Farmers Electric Cooperative
  • WGL Energy Services
  • WPPI Energy
  • Xcel Energy

Consumer Protection

The Green-e® Energy verification audit and review process protects customers by ensuring that the renewable electricity or RECs purchased and sold by the certified provider were not sold to more than one customer and that only one party has claimed use of that MWh of renewable energy. Replacement RECs are required when supply that has been submitted is ineligible for certification under the Green-e® Renewable Energy Standard for Canada and the United States. Common reasons for ineligible RECs are double claims (meaning another entity in the chain of custody has claimed to be using the renewable energy) and product-specific restrictions (such as variation from the geographic-proximity requirements of electricity products). In 2018, the Green-e® Energy audit identified less than 1,000 MWh of reported supply as ineligible for Green-e® Energy certification which would necessitate procurement of replacement supply by participants. This is due to a sustained market education outreach by Green-e® staff and increased due diligence on the part of Green-e® Energy participants in procuring supply.

Green-e® Climate

The Green-e® Climate program is the global retail standard for carbon offset certification, bringing chain-of-custody oversight to the voluntary offset market. The Green-e® Climate program provides critical retail protections and assurances for buyers, sellers, and project standards, including confidence in product marketing and overall quality.

Certified sales in 2018 reached an all-time high for the program. The Green-e® Climate program certified just over 496,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (mtCO2e) in 2018, up from 270,000 in 2017.

Green-e® Climate Certified Sales (in mtCO2e)

Residential purchases of Green-e® Climate certified offsets grew by almost 6,000 mtCO2e in 2018 while more than 70% of certified sales in 2018 were to commercial buyers. Sales of bundled natural gas-carbon offsets accounted for 5% of overall certified sales. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building certification, which requires Green-e® Climate certification (or equivalent) for offsets that can be awarded points for LEED certification, is a primary driver of certified sales. About 82% of certified sales in 2018 were sales for LEED building certification.

International sales of Green-e® Climate certified offsets hit an all-time high in 2018. The total volume of international certified carbon offset sales more than doubled in 2018, from 36,000 in 2017 to almost 88,000 mtCO2e in 2018. However, the number of countries where certified offsets were sold decreased by two, to 18. Buyers were located in Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, United States, and Uruguay.

International sales of Green-e® Climate certified offsets (in mtCO2e)

Green-e® Climate Bundled Sales

Share of Certified Sales for LEED Building Certification

2018 also saw a more diverse mix of projects provide carbon offsets to Green-e® Climate certified sales. For the first time in the history of the program, landfill gas capture projects were less than half of overall supply, at 45%. This is primarily due to a large increase in the amount of MTCO2e coming from industrial gas abatement projects, from 0 in 2017 to more than 195,000 MTCO2e in 2018. Overall, 28 different projects supplied offsets to Green-e® Climate certified sales; most were landfill gas capture projects (17, or 61%).

MTCO2e by Project Type

Count of Unique Projects

Green-e® Marketplace

The Green-e® Marketplace program recognizes organizations that use renewable energy and carbon offsets and enables them to demonstrate their environmental commitment to their stakeholders through the use of the nationally recognized Green-e® logo and additional promotional tools. In 2018, the Green-e® Marketplace program welcomed Church & Dwight, which committed to purchasing renewable energy for its Arm & Hammer Baking Soda brands. In addition, Church & Dwight has committed to labeling more products with the Green-e® logo.

Overall, Marketplace participants purchased or generated approximately 550,000 MWh of renewable energy in 2018, which is enough to power over 50,000 households for a year.

Vitafusion is one of the first brands in the Church & Dwight family to use the Green-e® logo.

Notes

  1. Based on consumption levels in 2018 according to the US Energy Information Administration, https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data.php#sales
  2. Based on total U.S. wind power according to AWEA, https://www.awea.org/wind-101/basics-of-wind-energy/wind-facts-at-a-glance

Figures

The charts below are interactive. Click on the items in the legend to change the display.

Green-e® Energy Certified Retail Sales by Product Type (MWh)

In 2018, Green-e® Energy certified retail sales totaled 62,124,000 MWh, an overall increase of 4% compared to 2017 sales.

Green-e® Energy certified sales have increased at an average rate of 13% per year over the past four years. Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) sales, either in the form of standalone RECs or in a power purchase agreement or virtual power purchase agreement, continue to drive the majority of certified sales and grew by 2% as a category in 2018. Certified sales through green pricing programs offered by regulated utilities grew by 8% compared to 2017, while customers in regulated markets purchasing through a community choice program (also known as community choice aggregation [CCA]) purchased 15% more MWh than in 2017 due to the surge in the amount of CCAs that have launched in their local communities, particularly in California. Total certified competitive electricity sales grew by 7% due to increased purchasing in the non-residential sector. Certified Direct procurement and onsite generation also grew 15% from 2017.

Note: The “RECS, PPAs, and VPPAs” category includes all certified REC transactions, including RECs that are part of PPA and VPPA deals.

Green‑e® Energy Certified Sales by Customer Type (in MWh)

Sales by customer type grew about 11% from 2017 for residential customers and 3% for non-residential customers, with the latter accounting for the vast majority of certified MWh purchased, at more than 56 million MWh. MWh sold as certified wholesale transactions increased by 23% from 2017, and residential sales almost reached 6 million MWh as more utilities increasingly seek Green-e® Energy certified green pricing options for their customers and more communities launch their own CCAs. Although there are significantly more residential customers that purchase Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy, they tend to purchase smaller amounts than non-residential customers.

Number of Retail Customers Purchasing Green‑e® Energy Certified Products by Type

2018 saw the largest number of total retail customers purchasing certified products, with an overall increase of 12% over 2017. The number of customers enrolled in a certified green pricing option has continued to grow, reaching 860,000 customers for an 11% growth from the previous year, while the number of customers enrolled in a certified CCA offering increased 16% from 2017 for a total of 127,000 customers. The number of Competitive Electricity purchasers decreased to 42,700.

Note: The “RECS, PPAs, and VPPAs” category includes all certified REC transactions, including RECs that are part of PPA and VPPA deals.

States With Green‑e® Energy Certified Renewable Electricity Options

Many customers throughout the U.S. have the option to purchase Green‑e® Energy certified renewable energy through their local utility or electric service provider. In 2018, bundled certified renewable electricity options were available in 36 states and Washington, D.C.

RECs unbundled from electricity are available to buyers regardless of location. Businesses purchasing large MWh volumes tend to purchase unbundled RECs, often for multiple locations, while residential customers and businesses purchasing smaller volumes tend to purchase a bundled electricity product available through their utility or electric service provider.

Contributions of Renewable Resource Types to Total Green‑e® Energy Certified Retail Sales

In 2018, Green-e® Energy sales came from a range of resources across the United States and Canada. The resource mix of the voluntary market continues to be wind-dominated in 2018 with wind facilities accounting for 87% of the total supply. Output from more than half of installed wind facilities in the U.S. is sold in Green-e® Energy certified transactions, based on total capacity. Solar energy consumption has grown exponentially the past couple of years and is increasing its share of the market mix, nearly doubling from 2017 to 2018 after increasing by a magnitude of 8 from 2016 to 2017. Solar now represents 6% of the overall mix.

Total Number of Facilities by Resource Type

There were 1,075 unique generation facilities with a total capacity of over 52,500 MW supplying Green‑e® Energy certified products in 2018. The number of solar facilities used to supply Green‑e® Energy certified products continue to grow at a fast pace; the number of unique solar facilities in 2018 reached 536 unique facilities, or nearly half of all total facilities. Total solar capacity utilized grew to more than 3,820 MW, reflecting a trend toward larger-scale facilities that is especially prevalent in direct transactions. However, wind still comprises the vast majority of overall capacity, at just over 90%. Overall, 68 facilities were added in 2018.

For the purposes of this report, solar installations contributing to a utility solar buyback program are aggregated into one facility per utility.

Megawatt-Hours by Facility Date of First Operation or Repowering

Only new renewables are eligible to meet Green‑e® Energy standards. Eligible facilities must have started operation or have been declared repowered in the last 15 years or otherwise been approved for extended use in order to provide generation to a Green‑e® Energy certified product. In 2018, over half of the MWh used to supply certified sales came from facilities that were less than five years old at the time. This showcases how cost-effective it is to build new renewables, but also how much new build is being used to supply the voluntary market.

Count of Facilities by Year of First Operation or Repowering

Newer facilities also provided a large portion of generation that went to certified sales in 2018. Facilities five years or younger made up just over 48% of all facilities that provided any amount of MWh to Green‑e® Energy certified sales. This may be due to the policy outlook impacting certain states at that time—some states may have had rebate programs or tax incentives that were implemented at that time, or may have been pursuing compliance targets aggressively and therefore had surplus generation to contribute to the voluntary market. It may also show the preference of corporate buyers for their monetary investment to be the determining factor in getting a new generator built.

Total Green‑e® Energy Certified Sales of Renewable Energy by Product Type and Customer Type (in MWh)

Residential (Retail)Non-Residential (Retail)Wholesale
RECs, PPAs, and VPPAs742,00049,687,00014,467,000
Green Pricing4,409,0002,709,000
Competitive Electricity209,0002,046,000
Direct 1,179,000
Community Choice Aggregation636,000507,000
Total Sales5,996,00056,128,00014,467,000

The total volume of all Green‑e® Energy certified transactions in 2018 reached nearly 76.6 million MWh. This total represents all transactions, including both certified retail sales to electricity end users looking to make a green power use claim, and wholesale sales to resellers of renewable MWh that did not claim the renewable electricity or RECs themselves. Green‑e® Energy certified wholesale transactions exceeded 14.4 million MWh in 2018. Of these certified wholesale transactions, around 5.4 million MWh were resold in Green‑e® Energy certified retail transactions. The remaining 9 million MWh were sold in non–Green‑e® Energy certified transactions to utilities, electric service providers, power marketers, and other buyers in the voluntary market—a slight increase from the 6.9 million MWh sold in non-certified transactions in 2018.

Green‑e® Energy certified sales of over 71.1 million “unique” MWh in 2018 (retail sales plus wholesale sales that are not resold)—an increase of 4% from 2017 and the highest total of certified unique MWh to date.

Note: The “RECS, PPAs, and VPPAs” category includes all certified REC transactions, including RECs that are part of PPA and VPPA deals.

Top 10 States by Retail Sales Volume

State% of Total Sales
CA18%
TX10%
WA9%
NY6%
OR5%
OH5%
NJ4%
PA3%
NC3%
DC3%

The Green-e® Energy program collects data on the number of retail customers by state and the MWh of certified products provided to them. The top 10 states in terms of sales volume have remained relatively constant over the past few years. In 2018, California was the state with the highest volume of MWh for certified retail sales. At 67%, the top 10 states represent the majority of the total volume of certified retail sales.

 

2018 also marked the first year that sales outside of North America were certified—the program certified sales to Singapore under the Green-e® Renewable Energy Standard for Singapore for the first time.

Percent of Total Retail Customers by State (Includes REC Sales)

State% of Customers
OR27%
CA11%
NY7%
WA6%
MN5%
UT5%
CO4%
MI4%
OH3%
VA3%

Retail customers buying Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy are spread out throughout the U.S. 76% of retail customers are located in these top 10 states in 2018. The top eight states remained the same from 2017 to 2018 while two Midwestern states traded places with Ohio joining the list at the expense of Wisconsin. The West Coast still has more customers than any other region with more than two of every five retail customers in 2018.

There is a large degree of overlap between these two “Top Ten” lists, however the key point of difference lies in the purchase size of residential and non-residential customers. The states with the highest volumes have more non-residential customers.

Top Ten States and Provinces Supplying Renewable Energy to Green-e® Energy Certified Retail Sales by Percent of Total Certified MWh

State/Province% of Total
TX33%
OK20%
ND7%
KS6%
IA4%
NM3%
FL3%
ID3%
MN2%
SD2%

83% of the renewable energy certified by Green-e® Energy was sourced from 10 states. Supply from both Texas and Oklahoma account for more than 53% of the total supply of renewable electricity certified in 2018. This is primarily related to the high wind content in many certified products, and the high rate of potential for (and installation of) wind facilities in the Midwest and Southern states such as Texas and Oklahoma. The difference between states with generators versus purchasers of renewable energy demonstrates how the market for unbundled RECs allows customers with limited access to local renewable energy products to support changes in generation portfolios throughout North America.

See below for the full map of states and provinces contributing to supply and sales for Green-e® Energy certified retail transactions.

Supply for Green-e® Energy Certified Retail Transactions

Sales of Green-e® Energy Certified Retail Transactions

Green-e® Energy Certified Sales of Renewable Energy Certificates (including PPAs & VPPAs Certified as RECs) by Customer Type

2018 Sales (MWh, rounded)MWh: % Change from 2017% of Total Retail REC Sales Customers
Residential 742,000 18%1.5% 181,200
Non-Residential 49,687,000 1%98.5% 28,100
Total Retail 50,429,000 2%100.0% 209,300
Wholesale 14,467,000 23% 60

Certified REC sales in 2018 continued to steadily climb, with across-the-board growth of 3% in total retail REC sales. The market is still driven by non-residential customers, the number of which actually decreased by 23% from 2017—meaning the average purchase size per customer substantially grew. Corporate customers are purchasing higher amounts of MWh. Residential customers grew by 20% in 2018 as more REC marketers started to operate in the residential market.

Green‑e® Energy Certified Sales in Green Pricing Programs by Customer Type

2018 Sales (MWh, rounded)MWh: % Change From 2017% of Total Green Pricing Sales Customers
Residential 4,409,000 8%62% 841,200
Non-Residential 2,709,000 9%38% 19,300
Total Retail 7,118,000 8%100% 860,500

Many customers can purchase a bundled renewable electricity product from their local electric utility. Utility green pricing programs certified by Green-e® Energy consistently make up the majority of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Top Ten rankings in terms of customer participation rate, total number of subscribers, total MWh sold, and green power sales as a percentage of total retail electricity sales. In 2018, these programs grew at a steady rate of 8% from 2017. An 11% growth in the total amount of residential customers contributed to the growth of certified Green Pricing sales, and the average purchase size remained approximately 5 MWh. Non-residential customers increased their average purchase by 400 MWh from last year, despite a decline in the number of non-residential customers. There is now more Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy sold through green pricing programs than ever before.

Green‑e® Energy Certified Sales of Electricity by Electric Service Providers by Customer Type

2018 Sales (MWh, rounded)MWh: % Change From 2017% of Total Competitive Electricity Retail SalesCustomers
Residential 209,000.00 -14%9%42,700
Non-Residential 2,046,000.00 9%91%600
Total Retail 2,255,000.00 7%100%43,300

In states where the electricity market is deregulated, customers have the option to choose their electric service provider (ESP).  While overall sales of certified competitive electricity options grew in 2018, the number customers of dropped. This suggests that the growth of this product type was heavily influenced by a small number of large commercial purchasers. Certified competitive electricity products have been in decline over the past few years, due in part to reclassification of Green-e® Energy certified CCA options to their own certification category from being included in overall competitive electricity numbers as well as an industry trend of large companies shifting their energy strategy to include more on-site renewable installations, energy efficiency, or direct power purchase agreements with renewable energy facilities or utilities.

Table 8: Green-e® Energy Certified Sales of Community Choice Aggregation Providers by Customer Type

2018 Sales (MWh, rounded)MWh: % Change From 2017% of Total Competitive Electricity Retail SalesCustomersCustomers: % Change From 2017Average Purchase Size (in MWh)
Residential 636,000.00 53%56%114,00025% 6
Non-Residential 507,000.00 171%44%13,00037% 39
Total Retail 1,143,000.00 89%100%127,00026% 9

Also known as Municipal Aggregation, CCAs allow cities and counties to aggregate customers in a regulated market within a defined jurisdiction to secure alternative electricity supply contracts on a community wide basis. As more states adopt legislation that allows the establishment of CCAs, Green-e® Energy has seen growth in terms of customers served by CCAs and MWh supplied to those customers. Residential participation in certified CCA programs grew in 2018 by 56% while non-residential customers increased by 37%. The overall sales for both customer types grew significantly, by 53% for residential and 171% for non-residential customers.