Frequently Asked Questions

What is the North American Renewables Registry™?

The North American Renewables Registry provides an easy-to-use, Web-based platform trusted to create, track, and manage renewable energy certificate (REC) origination for clean generation facilities located in states not covered by one of the existing regional tracking systems.

All certificates issued and held in the North American Renewables Registry are tracked using unique serial numbers. Registry Account Holders can transfer certificates to other Account Holders and retire certificates. The Registry's data infrastructure prevents double-counting of certificates and provides public reports and a full audit trail of all transactions, to ensure the integrity of the certificates issued and held in the Registry.

How does the North American Renewables Registry relate to other regional REC market systems?

The role of North American Renewables is to provide REC origination for clean generation facilities located in states and provinces not covered by the five current APX regional systems – NEPOOL-GIS, PJM-GATS, Texas RECs, M-RETS, and WREGIS. The purpose is to complement the existing market systems and provide complete North American coverage for renewable energy markets.

What benefits does the North American Renewables Registry provide?

With the Registry, all participants in the North American renewable energy markets - regardless of location - are now able to take advantage of a trusted infrastructure to help manage their role in the market.

For Corporations: Companies can use the Registry to manage renewable energy certificates, energy efficiency credits, and substantiation of environmental claims. It provides a way to demonstrate environmental and climate change leadership through the use of renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. In addition, companies benefit from the ability to easily track and manage their portfolios related to RECs, EE and carbon avoidance with a full audit trail.

For Retailers and Brokers: The use of the Registry can enhance the visibility, integrity, trust, and quality perception for clients, while at the same time reducing the cost of manual and paper processes to track RECs and documents.

For Utility Green Pricing Programs: The Registry enables increased administrative efficiency and public transparency in the management of Green Pricing Programs. Utilities can set up "sub-accounts" in the registry for each program.  RECs can be transfered into each sub-account - monthly, quarterly, and have full transparency, audit trail, and public visibility to the extent desired..

Clean Generators: The Registry provides generators with the ability to capture environmental value for clean generation. It creates a platform that places a dollar value on environmental benefits and allows clean and green generators to access an additional revenue stream or "green" premium.

How does the North American Renewables Registry work?

The Registry stores and publicly displays renewable energy generator and energy efficiency project information. The Registry also facilitates independent third-party certification and auditing of renewable energy generator and energy efficiency projects as well as certificate retirement records.

Once a renewable energy generator or energy efficiency project is registered and appropriate certificate documentation and attestations are uploaded, the Registry administrator will deposit into the project developer's account one certificate for each megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable energy generated or conventional energy generation displaced by efficiency projects. The generator or project owner then uses the Registry to transfer the certificates to another account holder or retire the certificates within the Registry. Account Holders receiving certificates from a project developer use the Registry to retire the certificates or to transfer the certificates to another account holder.

The Registry ensures the integrity of the certificates through a transaction-based data structure designed to prevent double-counting and provide full audit trail capabilities. Additionally, the Registry provides numerous publicly accessible reports that list Registry Account Holders, the status of generators and projects, and information about both issued and retired certificates.

How does the North American Renewables Registry support “carbon neutral” and green claims?

Many companies purchase renewable energy credits as a basis for carbon neutral and green claims.  The Registry has implemented two methods for calculating the avoided carbon emissions benefits of renewable energy:

(1) Green-e Method – based on NERC region and fuel type (solar, wind, hydro)

(2) U.S. EPA Climate Leaders Method – based on e-grid subregions and fuel type

The Registry enables companies to purchase and retire RECs and their avoided carbon attributes for voluntary claims.

How is the North American Renewables Registry helpful to the environment?

The Registry provides an independent platform to track, transfer, and retire environmental certificates, which facilitates third-party audit and verification of the certificates. It also ensures that certificates have not been double counted or double sold. Providing this credibility and transparency to environmental certificates builds market confidence that leads to increased purchases of environmental certificates and increased investment in renewable energy generation and energy efficiency projects.

Who can use the Registry?

Anyone can have an account in the North American Renewables Registry. Obtaining a Registry account requires completing the account registration process and paying the account registration fees.

Who can register a renewable energy generator or energy efficiency project?

A renewable energy generator or energy efficiency project can be registered by anyone who has legal title to the reductions. Typically this would be a generator owner or a project developer.

What renewable energy generation technology does the North American Renewables Registry accept?

The Registry accepts renewable energy generation technologies that are recognized by an industry leading standards and organizations such as Green-e, World Resources Institute, and US EPA Climate Leaders.

Can I register certificates that I purchased from a renewable energy generator?

Yes, if the generator's RECs are not being tracked in any other registry. The Registry allows Account Holders to register such certificates when Account Holders provide comprehensive documentation proving ownership and certificate sale history. This pedigree documentation is uploaded in the Registry and is always linked to the certificate serial number regardless of the number of times a certificate is transferred.

Is the North American Renewables Registry an exchange? Can I trade RECs on the North American Renewables Registry?

The North American Renewables Registry is not an exchange. An exchange matches buyers and sellers in a transaction, and the Registry does not do this. Buyers and sellers may identify each other using reports and public documents provided by the Registry, but deal negotiation and financial transactions happen outside the Registry. Once the financial transaction occurs, the seller uses the Registry to transfer certificates into the buyer’s account.  So the Registry is the system of record to complete the physical transaction, perform the transfer, and reflect the sale.  

Can RECs from other registries be transferred into or out of the North American Renewables Registry?

Currently, the Registry tracks certificates originating in the Registry. However, APX has begun discussions with other registries to allow for transfers between registries. Currently, there is no technological barrier to doing so.

Who is APX?

APX is the leading infrastructure provider for environmental and energy markets in renewable energy and greenhouse gases including carbon certificates. Providing a bank and mint for environmental certificates, the APX Environmental Market Depository is trusted to create, track, manage, and retire renewable energy certificates (RECs), energy efficiency and conservation certificates, carbon offset certificates such as voluntary emissions reductions (VERs), and greenhouse gas emission allowances. The company is the system of choice for every major renewable energy market in North America and greenhouse gas markets worldwide. APX also provides technology, strategic consulting, and expert operational services to assist wholesale power market participants reduce costs and improve performance in power scheduling, settlement, market operations, system operations support, and demand response programs. A privately held company, APX is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA

APX tracking and registry services provide 24/7 support of environmental markets through secure, fully staffed and geographically redundant data centers. Users of these systems include all key market participants including brokers, corporations, generators, NGOs and government organizations. In 2008, more than 1000 companies across the US and internationally will rely on APX for integrity in environmental markets.

How do I get more information?

For more information email narenewables@apx.com