UTILITYnet and Rewatt Power have partnered to help you earn revenue with carbon credits from your solar generation.
You are eligible if:
Your solar site is in Alberta.
Your site is operational.
You have not received a provincial or city grant that took ownership of your credits.
Your site is less than 5,000 kilowatts capacity.
Gain returns up to 26% of your investment*.
Market prices follow regulated carbon price increases.
Take minutes to earn thousands.
One-time setup. Eliminate human error.
Combine UTILITYnet’s Solar Club Program with Rewatt’s Alberta Solar Credits program for UTILITYnet customers
Your System Capacity (AC) | Conservative Case | Aggressive Case |
---|---|---|
2.5 kW | $606 | $877 |
5 kW | $1,352 | $1,918 |
7.5 kW | $2,357 | $3,380 |
10 kW | $3,170 | $4,548 |
12.5 kW | $4,040 | $5,779 |
15 kW | $4,920 | $7,051 |
20 kW | $6,671 | $9,561 |
50 kW | $17,172 | $24,649 |
100 kW | $34,740 | $49,811 |
200 kW | $69,648 | $99,823 |
How many credits you can make depends on the amount of energy your site produces. And Alberta, the number of credits you are titled to create is calculated using a simple formula:
Number of credits, stated in metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions (tCO2e) = Megawatt hours x Emissions Factor
So, let’s say your site produces 1000 megawatt hours in solar energy this year. With the current emissions factor set at 0.57, this would entitle you to create 570 credits.
Solar offsets in Alberta trade at a 15 – 30% discount to the price of carbon. As of January 31, 2022, the price of carbon in Alberta was $50/tCO2e. It is true that prices fluctuate, however environmental mandates and federal pressure have meant that carbon prices have risen over time.
What influences the discount amount? In general buyers are looking for newer projects and larger bulk purchases of credits. Older generation is typically discounted more heavily, as are smaller batches of credits. This is one reason it’s valuable to work with Rewatt: our larger pool of credits can attract larger buyers looking for more volume.
The credit offset period is the timeframe when your site is entitled to create solar offsets. For solar emissions offsets in Alberta this period is eight-years. In some cases renewal is possible and that provides an extension of another five years.
It’s important to understand that this period begins when your site is first attached to a project (a regulatory vehicle) NOT when your site is first operational.
We require an exclusive contract with sites over their offset period. In practice this means that if you onboard a site to Rewatt Market and begin to create credits with us, then this site will exclusively create credits through Rewatt for its eight year term.
Once the credit creation period is over, if you wish to remain on the platform, you can choose to either create and sell renewable energy certificates (RECs) or apply for a renewal – if granted, the renewal will entitle you to five more years of offset credit creation.
You own the right to your environmental credits, so long as you haven’t given or traded them away. This is usually not a problem unless you received grant funding or participate in other environmental programs.
Adding new sites or expanding the capabilities of existing solar sites can extend the offset period for an additional five years.
While both solar offset credits and RECs incentivize positive environmental impact, these instruments differ in some material ways:
the owner of one carbon offset has the right to claim responsibility for removing or preventing one tonne of CO2 from entering the atmosphere
the owner of one renewable energy credit (REC) has the right to claim responsibility for bringing 1 megawatt (MWh) of renewable energy onto the electrical grid.
Since the purpose of these instruments differs, demand for them differs too. For sellers it is important to appreciate that one solar offset credit tends to trade at a higher value than one REC on an energy equivalent basis.
Estimated Time: 5 to 10 minutes to complete..