EnergyTag, a new initiative led by some of the world’s largest players in renewable energy, will help bring greater transparency for energy consumers and accelerate the shift to clean energy.
Over 60 of the biggest names in technology and energy have come together to develop EnergyTag, a non-profit initiative that will allow energy consumers to track the source of their energy and understand their carbon emissions in a completely new way.
EnergyTag is developing an industry standard to deliver hourly energy certificates that show consumers precisely where their energy is coming from and see their carbon emissions in real time.
Partners in the initiative include Accenture, Microsoft, Google, Association of Issuing Bodies, CertiQ, EIT InnoEnergy, ECOHZ, Elering, Eneco, Energinet, Energy Web Foundation, ENGIE, Eurelectric, FlexiDAO, Iberdrola, I-REC Standard, M-RETS, OVO Energy, Ørsted, PwC, RECS International, WattTime and WindEurope.
EnergyTag’s Council and Advisory Board are currently working to identify a set of guidelines that will form the basis of a market for energy certificates with a timestamp of one hour or less. It will also promote the first voluntary markets for the certificates by coordinating a series of demonstrator projects around the world showcasing real-time energy tracking technologies.
Dr Toby Ferenczi, EnergyTag’s founder said: “It’s a cruel irony that the more successful we are at deploying renewable energy the harder it gets to integrate that energy into the grid. Adopting hour-by-hour energy certificates builds consumer trust by linking production directly to consumption, supports the growth of energy storage, and enables accurate carbon accounting. Our goal is to establish a common, tradable instrument that provides traceability across markets for power, flexibility and carbon. Speeding up the switch to renewables is vital if we are going to keep within the 1.5-degree climate goal.”
Phil Moody, chair of the EnergyTag Council and Advisory board said: “707 million electricity certificates (707 TWh) were issued in Europe last year involving 26 European countries. This success demonstrates what can be achieved when the industry identifies a need, builds a solution itself and then gets legislative support and regulatory approval once established. Current renewable energy procurement methods match average supply and demand over a 12-month period, but to reach the level of renewables required to meet new climate targets, there has to be some way to track the time of generation, which is why EnergyTag is the critical next step.”
EnergyTag works alongside and within existing electricity certification schemes as a voluntary ‘add-on’ and will not replace these schemes.
