Relevance of guarantees of origin for Europe's renewable energy targets

Peter K.R. Holzapfel, János Bánk, Vanessa Bach and Matthias Finkbeiner

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2024, vol. 205, issue C

Abstract: To accelerate the transition towards an energy system based on renewable energy sources (RES), governments set targets for RES shares in their energy mixes. Renewable energy also plays a major role in decarbonization strategies of private organizations. Electricity from RES is claimed via the acquisition of market-based Energy Attribute Certificates, such as Guarantees of Origin (GOs). GOs can be traded within the European residual mix area. Interest in GOs is lower in countries with high RES shares, leading to a trade imbalance. In 2020, Iceland and Norway had a GO trade deficit that corresponded to 74.2 % and 62.4 %, respectively, of their gross final electricity production from RES. This study evaluates the non-dependence of Europe's RES targets and the GO system by including GO trade in the RES share calculations. Overall, 11 countries do not reach their 2020 RES targets for the electricity sector due to the inclusion of GO trade. Their total GO trade deficit amounts to 212 TWh, equivalent to 31 % of all issued GOs from RES. Limiting international GO trade to ensure that each country still achieves its RES-E targets is one option to harmonize governmental and corporate RES and decarbonization targets. Other options include the complete prohibition of international GO trade and a GO trade limitation to actual physical electricity transmission. Further aligning physical and virtual electricity consumption could strengthen the energy transition contribution of energy attribute certificate systems, such as the GO system.

Keywords: Renewable energy targets; Guarantee of origin (GO); Energy attribute certificate (EAC); Carbon footprint; Life cycle assessment; Decarbonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124005768
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:205:y:2024:i:c:s1364032124005768

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114850

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().