Taking the complexity out of purchasing renewable energy

Purchasing renewable energy can help your business meet its renewable energy targets while supporting the continued growth of renewable generation in Australia.

Up until now, purchasing additional renewable energy was a time-intensive, complex and manual task, but our industry-leading solution Renewable Energy Contracting Options (RECO) can help.

In this article, we provide expert insight into exactly what benefits purchasing additional renewable energy, via your energy retailer, can provide to your large business and how RECO can help take the complexity out of this transaction.

What are renewable energy certificates?

Australia has multiple environmental certificate schemes, including the federal-level Renewable Energy Target (RET), which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector and encourage the integration of more renewable energy sources into the system. The RET comprises two schemes: the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) and the Small-scale Renewable Energy Target (SRES).

The LRET was designed to encourage investment in large-scale renewable power projects, such as wind and solar farms, which produce large-scale renewable energy within the transmission network. The generation of this energy is tracked using Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs), which are also known as renewable energy certificates, where each certificate represents one megawatt hour of electricity generated from an accredited renewable energy source.

In Australia, the way that the electricity grid is designed means that all electricity, regardless of source, is fed into a national (excluding Western Australia) pool before being transported to electricity consumers. This means that unless your renewable energy is generated on-site (such as through rooftop solar), you can’t guarantee that your business is using renewable energy. It also means that it’s generally not possible to physically buy electricity from renewable sources.

Instead, large businesses can make notional renewable energy purchases, where Shell Energy acquires and surrenders LGCs on your behalf, to effectively purchase renewable energy through renewable energy certificates.

What are the benefits of purchasing renewable energy?

Purchasing additional renewable energy can help your business:

Meet its renewable energy goals sooner

In Australia, large business energy customers can access retail supply arrangements where the volume of grid-supplied electricity is matched with up to 100% renewable electricity through the purchase and surrender of LGCs. This means that if your business has made a commitment to offsetting their electricity consumption in the path to net zero, purchasing renewable energy in this way can help your business to achieve that goal faster.

Demonstrate your business’ commitment to your environmental and sustainability goals

If your business has made a commitment to increasing the amount of renewable energy you use, demonstrating how much more you are using can prove difficult due to the nature of the electricity grid. As each LGC represents one megawatt hour of electricity generated from an accredited renewable energy source, purchasing and surrendering additional LGCs is one of the most transparent ways of demonstrating that your business is consuming renewable electricity.

Contribute to Australia’s renewable generation landscape

The renewable energy certificate market plays a dual function in Australia’s energy landscape: to elevate the competitiveness of renewable energy against traditional sources and to enable businesses to contribute directly to environmental sustainability. The purchase and surrender of renewable energy certificates allows businesses to offset their energy use with renewable sources while helping to drive further investment in Australia’s renewable generation.

Take the complexity out of purchasing renewable energy with RECO

Traditionally, purchasing and surrendering additional renewable energy certificates involved a lengthy manual process and agreement between your business and its energy retailer, or a third party. At Shell Energy, we recognised that this time-intensive process was a roadblock for some businesses looking to harness the full benefits that renewable energy certificates can provide.

That’s why we created RECO – the only platform that allows large businesses to purchase renewable energy online.

When you make a RECO purchase through the online Shell Energy Portal, Shell Energy acquires LGCs from accredited renewable generators and then surrenders them on your behalf, helping you meet your renewable energy goals faster. You can also make purchases linked to specific renewable energy generators within RECO, which may be beneficial to customers looking to show that they’ve offset their emissions with certificates from specific wind or solar farms.

Making a RECO purchase is as simple as following five easy steps, removing the complexity from purchasing and surrendering renewable energy certificates.