China’s green electricity trading sees remarkable growth in 2024

China’s green electricity trading has seen significant growth in the first half of this year, with the National Energy Administration issuing a total of 486 million green certificates an impressive 13 times the amount than that of the previous year.

With the introduction of a series of policies aimed at improving the green certificate system, the application scenarios for green certificates have expanded continuously. In the first six months of 2024, 197 million green certificates were issued for wind power, 102 million for conventional hydropower and 133 million for solar power, it said.

Launched as a pilot program in 2017, China’s green electricity certificate system allows businesses and individuals to purchase renewable energy voluntarily. Approximately 707 million green certificates have been issued cumulatively since then. Each certificate represents 1 megawatt-hour of renewable electricity consumption and can be traded on the open market.

The National Energy Administration has pledged to intensify efforts to guide large State-owned enterprises, multinational companies and export-oriented enterprises. This is to achieve green power consumption through the purchase and use of green certificates, providing stronger support for the green and low-carbon transformation of the social economy and the implementation of the dual carbon goals.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, all renewable energy projects are eligible to generate green electricity certificates, which can be sold to companies to certify that their electricity consumption is from renewable energy sources.

This serves as an attempt to further encourage domestic renewable energy market development.

Income from selling green electricity certificates belongs to the power generation company or renewable project owners, serving as an additional revenue stream alongside sales of renewable electricity.