Green energy certification

Summary: The terms green energy certification and renewable energy certification can refer to various certification schemes that confirm or reward the efficient or renewable use of energy in a given application.

Renewable energy certificates, also known as green certificates in Europe, are tradable intangible commodities representing the generation of a megawatt-hour of electricity from a renewable energy source. They are used to meet renewable energy goals and requirements, and by commodifying renewable energy, they allow electric companies that need to meet those goals to avoid the need to build their own renewable energy infrastructures. Other green certification schemes verify that a project, building, or appliance meets certain energy-use requirements.

White Certificates

White certificates certify a particular reduction of energy consumption and, like green certificates, are tradable commodities used to meet reduction goals and requirements. Energy producers that exceed their reduction goals, therefore, have a surplus of white certificates, which they may sell to other producers to put toward their own goals. White certification is a newer scheme than green certification, and it is not tied specifically to the use of renewable energy but rather to energy efficiency. So far, it has been less widely adopted; several European countries have adopted white certificate programs, and in the United States, Connecticut, Nevada, and Pennsylvania have included white certificates in their energy efficiency portfolio standards. Essentially, the requirement on energy utilities is to meet a particular percentage of their energy needs through reducing consumption—either by somehow convincing their customers to do so (through energy efficiency awareness programs and the like) or by purchasing white certificates. Part of the innovation here is in putting the responsibility for energy efficiency on the utility’s shoulders instead of simply relying on consumers to be well-informed and act in their self-interest to keep their bills down. The requirement also encourages utilities to cooperate with customers installing renewable energy generation systems at home.

Biofuel Tracking

Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees the production and use of biofuels—whether ethanol or biodiesel—and assigns each batch of produced biofuel a renewable identification number (RIN), which is used for tracking purposes. The EPA is also responsible for setting each year’s quota for the percentage of American motor fuel consumption that must be made up of biofuel blends. Companies demonstrate their compliance with those quotas by submitting to the EPA a list of the RINs that they used in blending their gasoline products, which is then checked against the EPA’s database for verification.

The Energy Star Program

An increasingly well-known green energy certification program is the Energy Star program, developed in the 1990s by the EPA but now used by other countries as well, including the European Union and Japan. The Energy Star logo may be displayed by products that meet a specific efficiency standard, determined by the product type; the logo is not available for all products but has expanded to a vast array of them since its introduction. Generally, the appearance of the logo on a product indicates that the product uses between 15 and 30 percent less energy than the average amount used for that product type. The first products eligible for Energy Star logos were computers and printers, which in the mid-1990s were experiencing a surge in usage and sales and were thus becoming a more significant contributor to energy consumption. Since 2009, the Energy Star 5.0 specifications have been in effect for computers, requiring more efficient power supplies. That same year, the first Energy Star specifications were published for stand-alone computer servers.

Energy Star appliances generally use 20 percent less energy than the standard, but specifics vary wildly. Dishwashers use 10 percent less energy and up to 20 percent less water; refrigerators use about 15 percent less energy; washers use 50 percent less water and 33 percent less energy; and dryers use 20 percent less energy. According to the EPA, more than sixty-five appliances and other home products were eligible to carry the Energy Star label as of 2023.

Energy Star–certified homes are designed to use 15 to 30 percent less energy than a standard home built according to the 2021 International Residential Code. Given the gains of green building and sustainable design and the inefficiency found in so much home construction, this is an easy target to shoot for; it can be attained with tighter and better-insulated construction, Energy Star–certified lighting and appliances (including the water heater, heating system, and air-conditioning system), and high-performance windows.

The Energy Star program has numerous shortcomings, however. The most obvious is that it considers only the energy consumed by the product’s usage—not the efficiency of its manufacture, transport, marketing, recycling, or other elements of the product’s lifecycle. The Energy Star program is essentially geared to appeal to consumers by promising products that will cost them less to use, but this is not coequal with products that are less energy-intensive over the course of their lifetimes. Certainly there is overlap, but for products that remain in consumer possession for a short period of time, such as iPods, cellular phones, many computers, and especially computer peripherals, the energy consumption of operations is a smaller percentage of the product’s total lifecycle energy cost. Furthermore, achieving efficiency gains may sacrifice other aspects of the product: It may shorten the product’s life span, which over the long term can negate the efficiency gains by requiring that a greater number of units of the product be manufactured. It may also offer reduced functionality in some aspect, such as limiting the depths of cold that a freezer can achieve. Such issues can pose serious long-term problems if they lead consumers to associate the Energy Star logo—or, more disastrously, energy efficiency in general—with poor quality.

In some cases, the Energy Star standard simply does not seem high enough to merit special attention. The standard set for Energy Star homes is easily achieved by most new construction without special painstaking; arguably, the standard should represent not a special achievement but rather a requirement imposed on all new construction, particularly since it puts no limit on the activity of the residents or their consumption. (It puts no limit on the use of air conditioning, for instance, as long as the air-conditioning unit itself uses electricity efficiently.)

In other cases, the circumstances under which the product applying for certification is tested are problematic. A 2008 audit of the program found that the reported energy savings of many certified products were unreliable or had been measured improperly. For instance, manufacturers of refrigerators test their appliances with the ice makers—which cause a major drain on power—turned off, which does not reflect how the product is intended to be used.

The practice of basing a product’s certification on its performance relative to other products in its category amounts to grading on a curve. Certain product categories are simply inherently inefficient: side-by-side refrigerators, nearly all air conditioners, room air conditioners that are not expertly installed in well-insulated homes, laundry dryers, and so forth. Other products, like dishwashers or washing machines, may be designed for better energy efficiency but still consume inefficient amounts of water.

Outside the United States

The EKOenergy label is managed by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, which has operated it since 1998, and applies to electricity generated in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The label is granted when a company meets EKOenergy criteria for the promotion of energy conservation and the use of sustainable, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biofuels, and hydropower. Hydropower sources must already exist and must have been constructed before 1996 (the Finnish are concerned with the ecological impact of further hydropower development), and wind farms must not be located in nature reserves or on culturally significant sites. Because residential and business customers can choose from numerous electricity providers in Finland, the EKOenergy label helps to make energy efficiency and renewable energy competitive practices.

Future Energy was a green electricity accreditation program in the United Kingdom that ran from 1999 to 2002, but it was allowed to expire for funding reasons. Green advocates in the United Kingdom continue to press for a resumption or replacement of the program. In 2023, the British government passed the Great British Insulation Scheme with the goal of making low-income housing more energy efficient. The government’s Green Deal also offered British homeowners loans to make energy-efficient improvements to their homes. These improvements included money for insulation, heating, and adding renewable energy sources, such as solar panels or heat pumps.

Bibliography

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