It’s really quite incredible. It’s all about selling your solar power. Massachusetts, along with other states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and four others have opened SREC Markets and Solar RPS including auctions and SREC trading employing SACPs as the auction base. In energy year 2010 Capacity Required is 30 MW increasing to 69 MW in 2011 and SACP in 2010 is $600 staying the same in 2011. SRECTrade was founded and is up and running….
Again, it really is quite incredible. You can now sell solar power from the photovoltaic (PV) array on your roof. Following is a quick primer to get started on the road to a better understanding of the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates of SRECs. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) approved the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates market to being in January 2010. DOER established a carve-out of solar power and Massachusetts implemented the MA Solar Credit Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse set a rock bottom price of $300 per SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Certificate) up to as much as $600 per SREC depending on fair market. Financers and solar owners can take comfort in knowing there is a rock bottom price of $300 per SREC and as much as $600 per SREC.
Defining the SREC in energy terms, one SREC equals 1,000 kWH of solar electricity which equals 1 MWh of solar electricity. So 10 kW of solar capacity equals about 12 SREC’s per year.
Pricing for each SREC is determined at an auction by the Clearinghouse. Price is influenced by supply and demand. The supply is determined by the amount of solar installations that are approved, and how much they are producing, and if the owners are trading the SRECs.
SACP is the Solar Alternative Compliance Penalty and represents a theoretical maximum value of each or any SREC. Auction histories to work out this SACP can be found on the SRECTrade Web Site.
Since it has been very costly for suppliers to buy direct from individuals, solar owners have had limited options for selling SREC’s in the past. Now it can be done! SRECTrade was founded to provide a public marketplace connecting sellers directly to suppliers in an inexpensive, easy, transparent and equitable way. If you are a solar owner, you can begin selling your SRECs once your installation is verified, inspected and approved. Only Solar photovoltaic installations under 2MW are eligible. Eligibility begins upon interconnection to the Utility.
RPS is the Renewable Portfolio Standard and requires suppliers to secure a portion of their electricity from solar generators. The local utility must have a certain portion of their electric come from solar or there will be fines imposed on the Utility. The SREC program now provides a means for solar generators like homeowners to sell their electricity as SRECs to suplliers.
The trade portion works as a monthly auction and is designed and optimized to match buyers and sellers of SRECs in the most fair and efficient manner. Just recently, SERCTrade created EasyREC, a service dedicated to automating the bidding process and eliminating any work on the part of the seller. If solar panels are in your future, know that Massachusetts is a SREC state with an active SRECTrade division. You can sell your solar power.
For more information, visit the Massachusetts SRECTrade web site.
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