Green Power Market Development Group

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line is a product of WRI's climate and business engagement projects including the Green Power Market Development Group and the U.S. Climate Business Group. Through these projects, WRI works with leading companies to pioneer low-carbon business strategies and advance markets for renewable energy. This series designed to provide quick background information on critical climate and energy policy topics:

Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets

The Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets is designed to help corporations understand, explore, and evaluate renewable energy opportunities. Published by the World Resources Institute, the Guide consists of a series of installments that will explore different aspects of corporate markets for green power, including:

The business case for green power
Major green power technologies including biomass, landfill gas (for electricity and for direct use), and wind
Strategies for corporate procurement of green power and methods for evaluating green energy opportunities
Policies for addressing obstacles to the creation of a robust corporate market for green power.

Installments will include useful tools, strategies, and case examples of corporate experiences with green power.

The series will be based on WRI's experience with the Green Power Market Development Group. If you would like free hardcopies of installments to be mailed to you, please complete the mailing form.

Installment 9. Diversifying Corporate Energy Purchasing with Wind Power

Installment 8. The Business Case for Corporate Use of Renewable Energy in Europe

This eighth installment in the WRI's Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets series gives an overview of the benefits that are motivating an increasing number of businesses in Europe to switch to energy from renewable sources. The authors, Craig Hanson and Diana Profir, draw from their experience of working with a number of leading corporations to identify and discuss three major types of business benefits companies obtain by using renewable energy. This installment also provides a number of corporate examples to illustrate these "business cases."

Installment 7. The Business Case for Using Renewable Energy

The seventh installment describes the business case for companies to use renewable resources to meet their energy needs. WRI’s experience indicates that firms are switching to renewable energy to obtain one or more of the following business benefits:

Lower or stable operating costs
Reduced emissions
Stronger stakeholder relationships

Written by Craig Hanson (WRI), this publication describes some reasons that more and more corporations have started to use renewable energy resources for their electricity and thermal needs.

Installment 6. Developing "Next Generation" Green Power Products for Corporate Markets in North America

The sixth installment describes "next generation" green power products tailored to the needs of corporate customers in voluntary markets. The three "next generation" products addressed in this publication are:

Green power using nationally sourced RECs
Long-term fixed-price green power
Green contracts for differences (CFD)

Written by Andrew Aulisi (WRI) and Craig Hanson (WRI), this publication analyzes the next generation products in the U.S. market context, including both regulated and deregulated states, and then reviews the applicability of these products in Canada and Mexico.

Installment 5. Renewable Energy Certificates: An Attractive Means for Corporate Customers to Purchase Renewable Energy

The fifth installment introduces "renewable energy certificates" (RECs). RECs are a renewable energy product that companies can purchase to reduce the environmental impact of their business activities. A REC represents the environmental attributes, for example, avoided CO2 emissions, that are created when electricity is generated using renewable resources instead of using fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas. RECs can be sold separately from their associated electricity and thus enable customers to purchase the environmental attributes of renewable power generation independently of their retail power supply. Purchasing RECs, therefore, can be an effective means for a company to "green" the electricity it consumes.

Written by Vince Van Son (Alcoa Inc.) and Craig Hanson (WRI), this installment provides an introduction to RECs for corporate energy users. This publication:

Defines RECs, their business benefits, and their similarities to other renewable energy products
Outlines several advantages RECs provide relative to green power
Shares strategies for purchasing certificates based on experiences of Green Power Market Development Group partners and other companies
Makes recommendations to market participants and policymakers for addressing challenges and accelerating REC market development.

Installment 4. Introducing the Green Power Analysis Tool

The fourth installment accompanies the release of the Green Power Analysis Tool.

This installment:

Identifies the business rationale for a Green Power Analysis Tool
Describes how the tool is structured, and explains how corporate managers can input data on green power projects and corporate targets
Explains how managers can use the tool to analyze one or more green power projects and illustrates several of the tool’s outputs.

Installment 3. Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories: Accounting for the Climate Benefits of Green Power

The third installment introduces corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories as a fundamental first step to enabling green power to meet corporate energy and climate goals.

An emissions inventory is a management tool for recording and quantifying a company's GHG emissions. An inventory is particularly important for companies using green power in that it records the benefits of switching to cleaner energy sources such as solar photovoltaic systems, landfill gas, geothermal, and wind-generated electricity. This publication:

Articulates the business case for developing a GHG inventory
Includes case studies of the value GHG inventories are providing Fortune 500 companies
Outlines how to develop an inventory
Provides guidance on how to record the GHG emissions impact from a variety of corporate green power projects
Addresses the issue of who should account for emissions reductions through green power
Discusses policies that would maximize the ability of inventories to reward corporate procurement of green power.

Installment 2. Opportunities with Landfill Gas

The second installment discusses landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) projects for corporate end users. The publication:

Provides an introduction to landfill gas as a renewable energy source
Presents a business and environmental case for LFGTE
Explains the economics of LFGTE projects
Outlines important aspects of implementing LFGTE projects
Identifies policy actions that would facilitate the further development of landfill gas as a source of green energy.

Installment 1. Introducing Green Power for Corporate Markets: Business Case, Challenges, and Steps Forward

The first installment provides an overview of corporate markets for green power, outlining:

Factors underlying the emergence of green power markets in the United States
Potential benefits of green power for commercial and industrial energy users
Challenges facing green power
Steps companies can take to address these challenges.

Purchasing Guide

Guide to Purchasing Green Power: Renewable Electricity, Renewable Energy Certificates and On-Site Renewable Generation

The Guide to Purchasing Green Power is intended for organizations that are considering the merits of buying green power as well as those that have decided to buy it and want help doing so. The Guide provides an overview of green power markets and describes the necessary steps to buying green power.

This publication is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, World Resources Institute, and Center for Resource Solutions.

Articles