Recently, 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, expanding the issuance scope of renewable energy green power certificates (green certificates) from onshore wind power and centralized photovoltaic power generation projects to all registered renewable energy power generation projects, achieving full coverage of green certificate issuance. Specifically, it includes national 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, marine energy power generation, etc.  

Green certificates are the sole proof of the environmental attributes of renewable energy electricity and the only certificate for identifying the production and consumption of green power. In 2017, China piloted the green certificate issuance and voluntary subscription system, under which green certificates were issued for the on-grid electricity of subsidized onshore wind power and centralized photovoltaic power generation projects. Since the implementation of the green certificate system, it has initially promoted the formation of a good awareness of green power consumption in the whole society, but there are still problems such as incomplete coverage of green certificate issuance and transactions, and the need to expand the application fields of green certificates.  

To further activate the green certificate trading market and expand the scale of green certificate transactions, the notice clarifies specific requirements for green certificate trading platforms, trading methods, and transaction proceeds. Among them, the green certificate trading platforms are expanded from the previous China Green Power Certificate Trading Platform to the Beijing Power Exchange Center and the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center, and will be extended to other state-recognized trading platforms in due course. Buyers and sellers can freely choose any green certificate trading platform to conduct green certificate transactions. Green certificate transactions are carried out through bilateral negotiation, listing, centralized bidding, and other methods. Regarding transaction proceeds, the notice proposes that for green certificates of projects enjoying central financial subsidies, bilateral negotiation 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 proceeds from green certificates shall be implemented in accordance with relevant regulations. (Reporter: Ding Yiting)  

Source: Official Website of the National Energy Administration