emix — archive

[Phil Davis]

Well, my head hurts now... We've had two kinds of customers in the past: one that wanted green energy but specifically also that wanted to retire the associated certificates (altruistic). The other was one that wanted fungible certificates so that any excess over their target could be resold (mercenary). With respect to local solar, suspect your points would be addressed by the state PUC's and implemented by the LDC. It is not practical to expect local generators (excluding those that are in the professional generating business) to deal with the complexities of energy markets. The result is that the "greenness value" is expressed in local incentives (rebates, tax credits) which essentially replace the concept of certificates for value or at least duplicates that function. Absent that, you'd almost have to have a meter that could imbue net metered electrons with the appropriate value added certificates and communicate that to some central banker. We actually make meters capable of this and of distinguishing between dirty and clean local generation, but the cost is beyond that which most small installations would find feasible. Helpful? Phil Davis