Energy Attribute Certificates play an increasingly important role in European energy markets
The importance of energy attribute certificates and guarantees of origin for the European energy markets is experiencing continued growth. This is evidenced in the half-year statistics of the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB), which is responsible for trading guarantees of origin.
As recent figures show, certificates of origin with a volume of over 786 TWh were retired by customers in 2023 as part of the European EECS trading system. The AIB statistics also show new records in terms of production: From the generation of guarantees of origin (GOOs) with a volume of around 984 TWh, green electricity generation in the AIB network very nearly reached the 1,000 TWh mark for the first time. Data from the first half of 2024 show that this trend of growth is continuing, notably on the generation side.
According to AIB statistics, a volume of over 653 TWh in GOOs have already been retired in the first six months of the current year, which corresponds to around 66% of the previous year's total. Energy expert Anton Schön, who heads the Renewable Energy team at First Climate, is delighted with this positive development. “The expansion of renewable generation capacities is progressing steadily. At the same time, the AIB network continues to grow - Bulgaria and Georgia have recently joined the AIB, for example. Overall, we can see that new and additional trading channels are being established and that the market as a whole is developing and becoming more differentiated.”
Growing demand from the private sector
Largely due to a growth in demand within the private sector, the trend towards guarantees of origin for green electricity continues: “More and more companies are turning to renewable energies as part of their decarbonization strategies in order to improve their carbon efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in their operations or supply chain,” says Anton Schön. “In many cases, energy attribute certificates (EACs) are an attractive solution for achieving corporate climate targets. The success of initiatives such as RE 100 or WeMeanBusiness shows how topical the issue still is for many companies.”
In Germany, the largest energy market in the AIB region, the increasing importance of renewable energies in the overall electricity mix is also clearly evident. As reported by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (= Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft, BDEW) in July, the share of renewable energies in gross domestic electricity consumption was 58% in the first half of 2024, which is higher than ever before.
Hydropower remains dominant – Growth in solar sector
Despite slightly lower imports of green electricity certificates compared to the two previous years, Germany remains by far the largest purchasing country in the AIB sector in terms of net trade balance; the total volume of GOOs imported in 2023 was 194 TWh. Norway remains the largest producing country by a wide margin, with exports of GOOs amounting to 422 TWh (2023).
The continuing diversification of the generation technologies used, which can be seen in the AIB statistics, is also positive: Although a solid 50% of the total GOOs traded in 2023 still came from hydropower plants, the figures were virtually unchanged compared to the previous year. In contrast, there was significant growth in demand for GOOs from onshore wind power and, in particular, those originating from solar energy: the increase in these cases was around 6% and 9% respectively!
Do you have unanswered questions about the current trends in green energy sources for your business? The experts in the First Climate Renewables team would be happy to advise you on an appropriate procurement solution – also according to conformity to all customary calculation and reporting requirements, for example the GHG Protocol, SBTi, or RE 100.
