RE-GO

The Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (RE-GO) project aims to assist Member States with the implementation of Guarantees of Origin (GO) by providing pertinent information and a venue to share experiences.

Context

The EU Directive 2001/77/CE on the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market published in October 2001 asks Member States (MS) among others to issue a guarantee of origin for renewable electricity. MS are obliged to appoint one or more independent bodies to certify that “green” electricity comes from renewable energy sources. These bodies will supervise the issue of the Guarantee of Origin. October 27, 2003 is the date by which MS are expected to have put in place a system for issuing Guarantees of Origin for renewable energy.

Objectives

The objective of RE-GO is to assist the EU Member States in implementing the GO requirement into their legislation by providing them with experiences of other member states.

By analysing the suitability of the GO as a tool for RE policy formulation RE-GO will provide member states will have a better understanding of the tool. Double counting is an important issue in the renewable energy policies that use certificates. Therefore this study will put a special emphasis on the subject in order to advise Member State governments in their implementation of GO.

The expected results of the project include:

• Assessment in all MS of the situation of the requirement to issue GO.

• Analysis of the opportunity that the GO offer for energy policy.

• Informing those MS that will not have implemented the requirement in October 2002 to adopt the necessary regulation in light of the experience of other MS.

• Helping MS handle the problem of double counting of certificates.

• Assessment of how GO can be used as a tracking mechanism.

The project is funded by the European Commission Altener Programme.