On our path to building a world that will sustain human life for generations to come, we are going to need many concurrent strategies.  Building more efficiently – in terms of energy use, water use, sustainable materials and so on – is a crucial step.  Perhaps even more crucial, however, is moving to sources of energy that leave a lighter footprint on the planet.

In the US, we still get over 70% of our electricity from mining and burning fossil fuels.  The way we produce electricity (according to the EPA) is the number one cause of US air pollution, not to mention the directly-related effects of climate change, mercury pollution, acid rain, mountaintop removal mining, etc.  Luckily, the last decade has seen worldwide record growth in renewable energy development.  It is now possible for every individual, company and building in America to join what has been popularly coined as “the green power revolution”.

When most people think of green power for their green building, they instinctively imagine solar panels or some other onsite energy source.  While this may be the most obvious strategy for choosing green power, it is often not the most cost effective and is not the most common.   Grid-source green power, in the form of renewable energy credits (RECs), allows building owners to aggregate demand to help support and grow new large-scale renewable energy facilities.  Over the last 10 years, while providing green power to over 1,000 LEED projects worldwide, we have run across some common questions about RECs and the LEED Green Power Credit, starting with “What the heck am I buying?”  I will address the most pertinent of those questions here.

What are renewable energy credits (RECs) exactly?
Renewable energy credits are the way that we track and trade green power in the US.  Renewable facilities generate renewable energy credits when they produce electricity, one REC for every megawatt hour (MWh) produced. Electricity produced at a wind farm gets mingled on the power grid with electricity produced by a coal plant, gas plant, etc. and as such, you never know from where the specific electrons that are powering your lights originated.  Purchasing these credits allows you to address the environmental footprint of the production of this mix of electricity you’re consuming. Purchasing RECs at the same quantity as your electricity consumption guarantees that the amount of energy you use is added back to the power grid from renewable sources and supports the further development of these projects. It’s important to note here that the RECs you choose should be third-party certified by Green-e Energy® to ensure quality and that there is no double-counting.

Currently, over half the states in the US have a statewide renewable energy mandate – something along the lines of “all utilities must supply 15% renewable energy by the year 2012 or pay penalties.”  The federal government is considering a similar nationwide green power mandate.  The way the utilities demonstrate that they are 15% renewable is by owning an amount of RECs that equal 15% of their electricity sold.  This is the same system used for voluntary, non- government-mandated green power buyers (like LEED projects).  When you buy RECs from a state with a mandate (or soon from anywhere in the US), the utility company cannot claim those RECs to meet their mandate.  They are then forced to build or get bids for additional renewable energy production to meet their mandate.  This is an important way that the voluntary REC market is helping to build new renewable energy facilities throughout the country.

How does the Green Power Credit work for a LEED project?
Even the most energy efficient buildings consume electricity produced primarily from fossil fuels such as coal, a leading source of industrial air pollution and climate change. The LEED Green Power Credit allows a project to support renewable energy development by choosing renewable energy credits (RECs). This offers affordable points toward certification that significantly reduces the project's environmental impact.

A project pursuing LEED Certification can earn as many as six LEED points (depending on certification type) by purchasing green power to offset the building’s energy use. It is a simple matter of purchasing RECs that correspond to the anticipated electrical usage in the building as determined by energy modeling.  Under LEED v3 (aka LEED 2009), the Green Power Credit (EAc6) has been given additional credit weighting. It directly addresses one of the key goals of the system: to reduce the carbon emissions produced as a result of the construction and operation of buildings.

What are some common misconceptions about green power in the green building market?
Having been USGBC members since 2003 and provided green power to over 1,000 LEED projects, we have seen just about everything when it comes to the Green Power Credit.  Green power is one of the most cost-effective LEED credits and is among the easiest to document (you just need a one-page purchase agreement and the letter template) but remains a bit misunderstood despite high adoption rates.  It may be useful to address some of the most common misconceptions when it comes to green power for LEED:

“I am just “buying” a LEED point.”

– This is the one we hear most often.  It seems that most LEED guides don’t tell you what you’re actually getting when you purchase green power.  Buying renewable energy credits (RECs) helps new green power facilities grow all over the US.  It’s a little cheaper to build a coal plant than a wind farm, so RECs provide a financial incentive for developers to build clean technology like wind power instead.  Wind farm developers cite revenue from REC sales as a core piece of the financing of any new wind farm. If nobody bought green power, fewer wind farms and renewable facilities would come online.  In fact, most of our customers are not even earning LEED points; they are buying green power because it’s the right thing to do, because they want to reduce their carbon footprint, because they want to brand their business as more environmentally friendly, etc.  The USGBC recognizes the value of supporting clean energy, and they award you LEED points for that.  You are not just “buying a LEED point.”

“I don’t own my building so I can’t buy green power.” (often the case for LEED CI or EB)

– There are simple ways to estimate your electricity consumption whether you are sub-metered or not.  The important thing is that you’ve done your best in estimating your usage and purchased enough green power to offset that usage.  Whether that ends up being 99% or 101% of what you actually use isn’t as important.

“I want to spend my money on efficiency instead.”

– Becoming more efficient is a crucial step towards sustainability, there is no question – the cleanest energy is the energy that is never used.  That said, even if every building in the US were to become 40% more efficient (quite the task), if the remaining 60% still came from coal-fired power plants it would only slightly delay the path of environmental destruction we find ourselves on.  Efficiency by itself is not a complete solution. We need to be moving toward pollution-free energy sources as well.

In a warming and increasingly precarious world, it is going to take every strategy available to ensure a sustainable, livable planet for the coming generations.  Every green building project can be a part of the full-scale solutions to the problems we face.  With an integrated approach of efficiency, conservation and cleaner energy alternatives, we can get there. The revolution is well underway and, like green building, green power is going to have to play a starring role.

John Powers is a LEED AP and has been a member of the Renewable Choice team for over seven years.  He currently serves as Director of Business Development, striving to actively grow the demand for clean energy. He has a BSE in mechanical engineering from Duke University.

Having provided green power to more than 1,000 LEED projects worldwide, Renewable Choice is by far the largest provider of renewable energy for the Green Power Credit. Our LEED clients have created demand for over 1.5 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy credits (RECs) which has helped to save up to 1,678,289,021 pounds of CO2. That’s similar to not driving 1.7 billion miles in the average U.S. passenger car. For more information visit us online at www.renewablechoice.com or call 303.468.0405.