About BEF's Green Tags

 

What is a Green Tag?

The Short Answer:
Each Green Tag represents the greenhouse gas reduction from 1,000 kWh (or 1 MWh) of electricity generation by a new renewable energy resource, such as wind power or solar power.  Every 1,000 kWh of electricity entering the grid from renewable sources displaces 1,000 kWh of electricity that would have been generated by polluting sources such as coal or natural gas - that’s where the greenhouse gas reduction comes from.  

The Long Answer:
BEF's "Green Tag" represents the environmental attributes associated with electricity generation from new renewable technologies like wind and solar energy.

A renewable energy facility produces two distinct "products." The first is electricity. The second is the package of environmental benefits resulting from not generating the same electricity -- and emissions -- from a conventional gas or coal-fired power plant. The renewable electricity displaces the dirtier power that would otherwise have been generated and delivered to the power pool.

These environmental benefits can be separated from the electrical power and packaged into a Green Tag. The Green Tag then represents the collective environmental benefits of avoided CO2.

The Green Tags reflect the avoided pollution that results from substituting new wind, solar and other renewable electricity sources for coal or gas. BEF then applies the net revenues realized by selling Green Tags to develop the next generation of renewable energy facilities. (BEF is a non-profit organization and we reinvest all of our net revenues back in renewable energy projects.)

The electricity generated by the renewable project is sold as generic power, separately from the Green Tag. No environmental claims can be made for this power because the Green Tag now represents the entire package of environmental benefits associated with these specific megawatt hours. The distinction between the two products is protected by enforceable contractual agreements.

Back to Top

Close Window

 

Where does my money go?
A large portion of your purchase dollars go directly toward purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) from new renewable energy production facilities across the country (see section of website for specific facilities we purchase from).  This means that your purchase directly contributes to the addition of clean energy to our nation’s grid. 

In addition BEF reinvests the "Profits" from Green Tag sales.  All of our net revenues from the sale of Green Tags are reinvested in new renewable energy projects and watershed restoration.  For information on the projects we have funded, see the projects sections of our web site that can be accessed from the navigation bar at the top of this page. When you buy Green Tags from BEF, you can be certain that your money is making a difference.

 

Why does the number of Green Tags I need depend on where I live?
Different regions of the country get their electricity from different fuel contributions.  For example, the Midwest gets almost 75% of its electricity from coal-fired plants and less than 5% from hydroelectric plants, while the Western States get only 34% of their electricity from coal and almost 25% from hydro.  That means that, generally speaking, electricity in the West is less polluting than electricity in the Midwest.

Our calculator determines the emission associated with your electricity use by using the average emissions for each region as published by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).  The following table shows the average emissions per MWh of electricity generated in each of the different NERC regions in the North America.  See the map below to find out which region you live in.  If you live close to a region boundary or are unsure which region you live in, you can contact your local utility to find out.

NERC region acronym

NERC region name

Average emissions
CO2 (lb/MWh)

ASCC

Alaska Systems Coordinating Council

1,106

ERCOT

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

1,421

FRCC

Florida Reliability Coordinating Council

1,328

HICC

Hawaiian Islands Coordinating Council

1,655

MRO

Midwest Reliability Organization

1,820

NPCC

Northeast Power Coordinating Council

908

RFC

Reliability First Corporation

1,434

SERC

SERC Reliability Corporation

1,387

SPP

Southwest Power Pool

1,830

WECC

Western Electricity Coordinating Council

1,107

U.S.

Combined National Average

1,363

 

How much CO2 does a Green Tag offset?
Each Green Tag represents the CO2 reduction from 1,000 kWh of electricity generation by a new renewable energy resource.  The amount of CO2 that each Green Tag offsets depends on the product contents.  We currently offer five Green Tag products with contents as follows:

 

Why do different Green Tags offset different amounts of CO2?
This can be a complex topic, so let’s start with the basics and build from there.  Green Tag purchases support new renewable energy projects, which provide clean energy to the national electric grid.  Each Green Tag represents 1,000 kWh (or one MWh) of electricity from a clean, renewable resource.  The more clean energy there is on the grid, the less need there is for energy generated by burning polluting fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc).

The next step is to understand the national electricity mix.  Different regions of the country get their electricity from different fuel contributions.  For example, the Midwest gets almost 75% of its electricity from coal-fired plants and less than 5% from hydroelectric plants, while the Western States get only 34% of their electricity from coal and almost 25% from hydro.  That means that, generally speaking, electricity generation in the West causes less pollution than electricity generation in the Midwest. 

Green Tags support many projects around the country, and a project’s location determines how much CO2 its Green Tags will offset.  Using the example above, if a wind farm is built in the Upper Midwest, its power is displacing a lot of coal-fired electricity.  In other words, those Green Tags offset a lot of CO2- as much as 1813 lbs per MWh of electricity produced.  Green Tags from a similar wind farm located in the West would offset about 30% less (1295 lbs/kWh).

 

Where to your regional CO2 emissions figures come from?
Our products are certified by Green-e® Climate.  Green-e® Climate has developed standards that we must follow in order for our products to be certified by them.  Following is a table showing the emission offsets we are allowed to claim for projects in each of the different regions in the US and Canada.  Green Tags which contain RECs from non-baseload sources (wind and solar projects) use the Combined Margin figures in the table below.  Green Tags with RECs from baseload sources (hydro, biomass, geothermal projects) use the Build Margin figures.

NERC region acronym

NERC region name

Operating Margin (lbs/MWh)

Build Margin (lbs/MWh)

Combined Margin (lb/MWh)

ASCC

Alaska Systems Coordinating Council

1,437

1,541

1,489

ERCOT

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

1,335

1,306

1,320

FRCC

Florida Reliability Coordinating Council

1,475

1,109

1,292

HICC

Hawaiian Islands Coordinating Council

1,698

1,456

1,577

MRO

Midwest Reliability Organization

2,192

1,433

1,813

NPCC

Northeast Power Coordinating Council

1,539

1,142

1,341

RFC

Reliability First Corporation

1,987

1,083

1,535

SERC

SERC Reliability Corporation

1,842

1,306

1,574

SPP

Southwest Power Pool

1,695

1,034

1,346

WECC

Western Electricity Coordinating Council

1,411

1,179

1,295

 

What does it mean for an energy source to be baseload or non-baseload?
Electricity is used as it’s generated. There is very little ability to store electricity in our nation’s grid. Because of this instantaneous nature, the electric power system must constantly be adjusted to ensure that the generation of power matches the consumption of power. On continental U.S. power grids, roughly 150 Control Area Operators serve this function by using computerized control centers to dispatch generators as needed.  To help the Control Area Operators, electrical generators are divided into three categories:

Nuclear and hydro plants, for example, are nearly always operated as baseload plants because they are most stable at full power. Intermediate plants are well-suited to changing power loads (called "load following"); gas turbines, solar farms and wind farms can be used as intermediate plants. Peaking plants are generally the most expensive plants to operate. In most cases, these are small, older, and usually dirtier fossil-fuel fired plants.
Baseload technologies are any resources that can produce a continuous, or baseload, amount of electricity, and can be controlled to adjust the amount of electricity they’re producing.  Think of them as a giant water storage tank with a faucet on it- when you need a little water, you open the faucet a little, and if you need more water, you open the faucet more.  Examples of baseload technologies are hydro, biomass, and geothermal. 

Non-baseload technologies are resources with electricity output that is not continuous, and cannot be completely controlled.  Using the water analogy again, non-baseload technologies are like rain.  If you want a glass full of water, you can set it outside to fill up, but it might take several days before it rains, and even then it might not be enough to fill your glass.  Examples of these non-baseload technologies are wind and solar power. 

Whether a renewable resource is baseload or non-baseload determines the amount of pollution it will actually offset. 

 

What is a "build margin" or a "combined margin"?
Build margin is the region’s estimated emissions based on its current facilities and planned new facilities through 2010.  Operating margin is the “non-baseload” emissions of currently operating grid-tied generating facilities in the region.  These are the facilities that will actually reduce their output in response to an increase of electricity from renewable resources entering the grid.

 

How do these margins relate to renewable energy?

For illustration, consider this example:  There is a neighborhood of 400 homes in North Dakota, which currently gets its electricity from a coal-fired power plant.  

Let’s say the electric utility installs a wind turbine that has the capacity to serve 400 homes when the wind is blowing at a given average speed.  However, any time the wind is not blowing, or is blowing less than average, the wind turbine is not producing enough electricity.  If the wind turbine was the only source of electricity for those 400 homes, some or all of them would be without power whenever the wind slowed down or stopped blowing.  Another scenario is that on a hot day, a large portion of those 400 homes could try to run their air conditioning at the same time, thus pushing the total demand higher than the wind turbine alone can supply.  To avoid these situations, the electric utility needs to keep a backup power plant on standby to deliver electricity to the homes whenever the wind turbine slows down or when the total electric load increases beyond the turbine’s capacity.  While the wind turbine clearly reduces the amount of electricity that the backup plant needs to produce, it cannot entirely eliminate the need for the backup plant.

Now, let’s look at the same neighborhood, but instead of a wind turbine, we’ll say the electric utility has installed a new, low-impact, hydroelectric power plant.  This plant also has the capacity to power 400 homes when a specific amount of water is flowing through the turbines.  In this case, the flow of water through the turbines will neither increase nor decrease unless a plant operator makes a change.  In other words, there is a continuous, reliable supply of electricity.  Now let’s say that half of the 400 homes decide to turn on the air conditioning again, increasing the total power demand by 25%.  The operator in the hydro plant can increase the flow of water through the turbines to produce more electricity and meet the increased demand caused by the air conditioning.  In this case the hydro plant is actually capable of supplying the electricity needs of the 400 homes on its own. There is no need for the coal plant in this scenario.

As a nation, our power demand is increasing.  That means we continue to build new power generation facilities.  In fact, the electric utilities across the country are continually developing and refining their plans for how they will meet this increasing demand and how to address the fact that existing power plants, at some point, need to be replaced.

Let’s now change our two scenarios slightly to see how renewable resources might affect the utilities’ plans.  Let’s say that instead of an existing neighborhood with an existing power plant, the 400 homes are in a new development, which the electric utility needs to provide power to. 

In the hydro example, we saw that a hydro plant could meet the demand of a neighborhood of 400 homes on its own and therefore a new coal plant would not need to be built. When renewable energy is added to the grid in sufficient amounts to prevent the construction of new polluting resources, the emissions that are avoided are referred to as “Build Margin”.  The Build Margin reflects the emission rates of the planned capacity additions in the United States.  If the planned capacity additions included nothing but coal plants, the Build Margin would be very high.  If the planned capacity additions were mostly cleaner natural gas plants, the result would be a lower Build Margin. 

In the wind turbine scenario, we saw that we could meet most of the demand of the 400 homes most of the time.  For reliability, we would need power from somewhere else to fill in the gaps in power generation of the wind turbine, but when the wind blows, the “backup” plants can produce less energy and therefore collectively release fewer greenhouse gas emissions.  We can say then, that when the wind turbine operates, it is displacing the emissions caused by the operation of currently existing power plants on the grid.  These displaced emissions are called the “Operating Margin”. 

However, wind energy is becoming very popular and many new wind turbines are being added to the nation’s electricity grid, sometimes as part of large wind farms.  This is good news and, in fact, this trend is beginning to affect the actions of utilities and regulators as they try to stay ahead of our nation’s growing power demand.  Over time, the output of wind facilities can become sufficient to prevent the construction of new polluting resources.  So wind energy, and other non-baseload resources, affect both currently operating facilities (Operating Margin) and planned facilities (Build Margin).  To represent this combined impact, we use the average of the Operating Margin and the Build Margin emissions, which we call the “Combined Margin”. 

To summarize, over time, Baseload Renewable Technologies reduce the need to build other power plants and therefore offset the Build Margin.  Non-Baseload Renewable Technologies reduce the need to operate other power plants in real time (The Operating Margin) and over time, also reduce the need to build other power plants (The Build Margin).  Therefore these resources are deemed to offset the average of the Build and the Operating Margin, which is called the Combined Margin.

 

What does Green-e® Climate certification mean?
Green Tags are certified by the Green-e® Climate program. Our full disclosure statement follows:

When a renewable energy facility operates, it creates electricity that is delivered into a vast network of transmission wires, often referred to as "the grid." The grid is segmented into regional power pools such as the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), which covers much of the Western part of the United States.  In many cases, these pools are not interconnected. To help facilitate the sale of renewable energy nationally, a system was established that separates renewable electricity into two parts: the electricity or electrical energy produced by a renewable generator and the renewable "attributes" of that generation. The renewable or "green" attributes are sold separately as renewable certificates, or Green Tags. Only one certificate may be issued for each unit of renewable energy produced. This separation of energy and attributes allows anyone to support new renewable energy development, regardless of whether or not their utility company offers it to them.

BEF Green Tags are a renewable certificate product. With the purchase of every BEF Green Tag, you are buying the environmental or "green" attributes (i.e. benefits) of 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity from new renewable resources. You will continue to receive a separate electricity bill from your utility. A purchase of BEF Green Tags supports new renewable electricity generation, which offset the environmental effects of burning coal, gas and other fossil fuels in the 15 Western States. (The term "new" indicates renewable generators that first started operating on or after January 1, 1997. These facilities help to shift the overall energy mix toward more renewables and less burning of fossil fuels.) In addition, BEF Green Tags help build a market for renewable energy, reduce global climate change, and may have other environmental benefits such as reducing regional air pollution. For additional information on the specific facilities that generate BEF's Green Tags, click here.

BEF Green Tags are verified and certified by the Green-e® Climate program. BEF and each of its suppliers are required to disclose the quantity, type and geographic source of each certificate (or Green Tag). The Bonneville Environmental Foundation will provide you with a report of the resource mix of the Green Tags that you purchased during the preceding calendar year. Please see the Product Content Label for this information. The Green-e® Climate Program also verifies that BEF Green Tags are not sold more than once or claimed by more than one party. For information on the Green-e® Climate Program please visit their website at www.green-e.org or call toll free at 1-888-63-GREEN.

 

What is the difference between green power and Green Tags?
Whether you buy green power or Green Tags, the environmental benefit is exactly the same. The only difference is in the accounting process that tracks these benefits.

In a green power transaction, a utility (or power marketer) buys renewable energy from a renewable energy facility. This electricity is delivered into the power pool, where it mixes with all the other electricity being generated at the time. Finally, the power is delivered to all customers of that utility. The mix of "green" and "brown" power is actually shared by everyone while the environmental attributes are credited to the customers who have paid a premium to create that benefit.

In a Green Tag transaction, the way that electricity is delivered does not change. The electricity and its corresponding environmental attributes are separated. The electricity is sold into the grid as if it were "normal" or "generic" power, not "green" power. No environmental claims can be made for this energy.

The environmental attributes are sold as Green Tags. Again, The mix of power is still shared by everyone while the environmental attributes from the renewable energy facility are credited to the customers who have paid a premium to create that benefit by buying Green Tags.

Back to Top

Close Window


Where does BEF's green power come from?
BEF Green Tags are from new wind, solar, and low-impact hydro facilities placed into service or repowered after January 1, 1997. For a complete list of these facilities, click here. BEF Green Tags are certified by Green-e® Climate. All of the renewable sources of BEF’s Green Tags meet rigorous environmental criteria endorsed by three leading environmental organizations including The Natural Resources Defense Council. To our knowledge, BEF is the only Green Tag provider that performs such project analyses.

Back to Top

Close Window


How does BEF's green power get to me?
If you are connected to a utility distribution system (i.e., your local electric utility), you are going to get electricity from the same mix (power pool) of generating plants as your neighbor gets. Electricity from a wind turbine looks no different and acts the same as electricity generated from a coal facility. Once the energy leaves the generator and goes into the power pool, it is all the same, and the pool cannot deliver electricity from a particular generator to you.

But there is a difference between one bit of electricity and another. The difference is in the way electricity is generated. If we use more wind turbines and fewer coal plants, we produce less air pollution. All the electricity will continue to look the same, but the environment will look better - and be healthier. The important goal is to change the mix of the kind of electricity that goes into the grid. BEF, a non-profit organization, is committed to doing just that. When you and others purchase BEF Green Tags equal to all or a portion of the energy that you are using, your contribution helps build more wind turbines, solar facilities and other forms of renewable energy that reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed.

Back to Top

Close Window


Where does the power come from for my Green Tags?
BEF Green Tags come from new wind, solar, and low-impact hydro facilities that meet the siting and operating standards we, and our environmental partners, have developed. A complete list of these projects is available in the Green Tag Supply section on the left sidebar.

Back to Top

Close Window


How can I be sure that I am getting my Green Tags?
At least annually, buyers of BEF Green Tags will receive a certificate indicating the number of Green Tags acquired on their behalf and from which resources they were generated (e.g., the percentage of wind, solar, etc.). This is your assurance that your Green Tags have been produced and that they are counted only once.

Back to Top

Close Window


Can I buy green power or Green Tags from my utility?
Some utilities offer green power programs to their customers. Please contact your utility for more specific information. In the Pacific Northwest, BEF collaborates with a number of utilities. Please click here to see if your utility is one of them.

Back to Top

Close Window


Will my utility service change when I buy Green Tags?
No. When you buy Green Tags from BEF, your relationship with your utility will remain the same as it is today. The Green Tags reflects the environmental benefits of new green power coming into the power pool, displacing power from fossil fuel plants. The money you pay to BEF goes first to cover any higher costs of the cleaner renewable power. Any remaining net revenues are then reinvested in the next generation of renewable energy.

Purchasing Green Tags from BEF will not alter or complicate the quality, quantity, reliability or terms of service for any of your electricity purchases. Your ability to remain with or change your utility provider remains unaffected by a purchase of Green Tags.

Back to Top

Close Window




1For more information on how these calculations are performed, see the section "How Does the Calculator Work?"

Back to What is a Green Tag?

Close Window


Copyright © 2008 Bonneville Environmental Foundation