Volts The escalating battle over renewable energy certificates (RECs)
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Oct 29, 2025 
Wilson Ricks, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton, and Killian Daly, executive director of Energy Tag, dive deep into the complexities of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). They discuss the proposed shift to hourly, local matching to enhance transparency and combat greenwashing. The guests analyze the challenges and administrative burdens this may pose for large companies, while emphasizing the importance of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) over spot RECs. They also touch on how data centers can successfully adapt to new regulations, paving the way for more genuine claims of 100% clean energy.
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Hourly Matching Improves Claim Accuracy
- Annual REC accounting hides when and where clean power is actually used, so moving to hourly reporting improves accuracy.
- Wilson Ricks argues large companies can manage hourly reporting and it clarifies genuine progress.
Match Time And Place To Physical Power
- Geographic and temporal granularity forces claims to align with physically accessible power.
- Killian Daly and Wilson say this reduces absurd claims like being 'solar-powered at night' from faraway grids.
Incentivize Diverse, Hour-Targeted Procurement
- Encourage procurement of diverse clean resources including storage and clean firm power rather than only cheapest daytime solar.
- Wilson Ricks recommends incentives that reward technologies that deliver clean power at hard-to-decarbonize hours.