Emission Allowances for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects

Allowance trading programs represent an opportunity for the renewable and energy-efficiency industry to capitalize on the environmental benefits associated with their projects. By reducing or preventing emissions, renewable and energy-efficiency projects may qualify for emission allowances that can help sponsors justify their projects. Several federal, state, and international programs are venues for emissions documentation and trading. One program, an energy efficiency/renewable energy set-aside program, is described in this paper. A crucial element of an allowance trading program is the documentation and verification, or evaluation, of actual emission reductions. Thus, this paper also reviews the evaluation process that has been developed for an energy-efficiency and renewable-energy set-aside program and puts the process in context with methods outlined in the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP).