On August 3, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the *Notice on Comprehensively Covering Renewable Energy Green Power Certificates to Promote Renewable Energy Power Consumption* (Fa Gai Neng Yuan 〔2023〕 No. 1044).
According to the document, green certificates will be issued for all electricity generated by registered renewable energy power generation projects nationwide, including wind power (including distributed wind power and offshore wind power), solar power generation (including distributed photovoltaic power generation and solar thermal power generation), conventional hydropower, biomass power generation, geothermal power generation, and marine energy power generation, achieving full coverage of green certificate issuance.
The document clarifies that green certificates are the sole proof of the environmental attributes of renewable energy electricity in China, and the only certificate for identifying the production and consumption of renewable energy power, used for the accounting of renewable energy power consumption and the certification of renewable energy power consumption, etc.
In addition to serving as a certificate for renewable energy power consumption, tradable green certificates can also be transferred有偿 between power generation enterprises and users through participation in green certificate and green power transactions. The electricity corresponding to green certificates shall not be used to repeatedly apply for other certificates with the same attributes in the power sector.
According to data from the "China Green Power Certificate Subscription and Trading Platform", from January to August 2023, the average sales price of wind power and photovoltaic green certificates was 42.2 yuan per certificate, with transaction prices concentrated between 30-50 yuan per certificate, and individual photovoltaic transaction prices as high as 190 yuan per certificate. Based on 1 green certificate unit corresponding to 1,000 kWh of renewable energy electricity, green certificates can bring 0.03-0.05 yuan per kWh of green power revenue to wind power and photovoltaic projects.
According to data from the Beijing Power Exchange Center, since the launch of green certificate transactions in September 2022, 1.4543 million green certificates were traded by the end of 2022, with an average transaction price of 28.1 yuan per certificate. The highest green certificate transaction price in Chongqing reached 41 yuan per certificate.
Green certificate transactions are conducted through the China Green Power Certificate Trading Platform, as well as the Beijing Power Exchange Center and the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center. At this stage, tradable green certificates can only be traded once.
Green certificate transactions are carried out through bilateral negotiation, listing, centralized bidding, and other methods. Among them, in bilateral negotiation transactions, both market entities independently negotiate the quantity and price of green certificate transactions; in listing transactions, information on the quantity and price of green certificates is released on the trading platform; centralized bidding transactions are organized as needed, with the transaction quantity and price specified in accordance with relevant rules.
For green certificates of projects enjoying central financial subsidies, bilateral and listing methods will be mainly adopted initially, and conditions will be created to promote the use of centralized bidding as soon as possible. The revenue from green certificates shall be implemented in accordance with relevant regulations. For parity (low-price) projects, projects that voluntarily give up central financial subsidies, and projects whose central financial subsidies have expired, there is no restriction on the green certificate transaction method, and the revenue from green certificates belongs to the power generation enterprise or project owner.
Source: Weineng Network
For details, please refer to the annex: *Notice on Comprehensively Covering Renewable Energy Green Power Certificates to Promote Renewable Energy Power Consumption*
Annex: *Notice on Comprehensively Covering Renewable Energy Green Power Certificates to Promote Renewable Energy Power Consumption* (Fa Gai Neng Yuan 〔2023〕 No. 1044) - National Development and Reform Commission.pdf
