Review for Global Practices of Renewable Energy Certificates

With the increasing proportion of installed capacity and power generation of renewable energy, different renewable energy market mechanisms emerge to stimulate the development of renewable energy industry. In particular, global attentions has been focusing on Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in different countries and areas, for example, International Renewable Energy Certificate (I-REC), Guarantees of Origin (GO). This paper briefly introduces different renewable energy mechanisms in U.S., Europe, China and makes corresponding comparisons. Moreover, renewable energy certificates including I-RECs, GOs, Green Electricity Certificate (GEC) and other types are elaborated and applied areas, applicable project types, energy sources, prices are compared to different RECs. Furthermore, introduces RE100 as a case of international general green certificate certification framework. Finally, the future development of the renewable energy certificates mechanisms is prospected.