As a result, to achieve 100 percent clean energy — at least on paper — companies often buy what are known as renewable energy certificates, or RECs, from a solar or wind farm owner. By buying enough credits to match or exceed the energy its operations use, a company could make the claim that its business is powered entirely by clean energy.
“That’s what we do, buy RECs for projects that are not yet operational,” Ms. Hurst said.
In a report published by the Amazon employee group after the company’s announcement, the workers said their research concluded that after deducting Amazon’s use of credits, the real investment in clean energy was just a fraction of what was publicized.
“Buying a bunch of RECs doesn’t help anything,” Ms. Stokes said. “You just have to be investing in real projects.”
Kind of the main punchline of the article. It’s indulgences again
Yep. In the early days of transferable renewable energy credits, they were very much hoped to result in additional renewable energy construction, but it became clear within a few years that they don’t have that impact.
Kind of the main punchline of the article. It’s indulgences again
Yep. In the early days of transferable renewable energy credits, they were very much hoped to result in additional renewable energy construction, but it became clear within a few years that they don’t have that impact.
They were an intentional lie by industry, just like post consumer plastic recycling.
There’s a whole bunch of those in Alberta (Canada), the biggest solar farm in the province is owned by Amazon if I’m not mistaken.
With local laws you can’t prevent someone from exploiting petrol found on your lot but you can’t allow a company to install wind turbines on your lot…