A new version of the bill on green certificates has been prepared

Investors in renewable energy are unlikely to get much from the sale of green certificates for their generation. As Kommersant found out, the government will develop special rules for trading certificates, since the industry is already paying an increased price for the capacity of renewable energy facilities. Big business is satisfied, but is waiting for specifics. Investors in renewable energy consider regulation inappropriate. Analysts note an increase in demand for green certificates from industrial companies to reduce the carbon footprint of products and create an environmentally friendly image, predicting the growth of this market in Russia to 18 billion rubles. by 2030.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the new version of the bill on green certificates, prepared for the second reading in the State Duma. The Ministry of Energy, “taking into account the comments of the State Legal Department of the President,” made an amendment to the document, according to which the government will develop specifics for the circulation of green certificates for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources. Investors are building renewable energy facilities – solar, wind farms and mini-hydropower plants – under the green generation support program and receive increased payments from the market under capacity supply agreements (CDA).

The amendments have already been approved by the legislative committee. The document will soon be submitted to the second reading in the State Duma. Specific rules for the circulation of certificates for CSA RES will be determined in a government decree. There will be no special conditions for large HPPs and NPPs built under CSA mechanisms.

The discussion around the price of green certificates from CSA RES facilities has been going on for several years. The industry that has already paid more than 90 billion rubles for energy capacity under CSA RES. from the beginning of the program, asked to give these certificates to enterprises at cost or to deduct additional revenue from generating companies from the sale of certificates from market payments for capacity (see Kommersant dated July 7, 2021).

The explanatory note to the bill notes that the government will create a “more fair and balanced model of regulation” of the certificate market in order to take into account “payments for capacity already made by consumers” under the RES CSA. Special rules are needed to “reduce the potential risks of non-recognition” of Russian certificates in foreign systems, where it is necessary to take into account other measures of direct and indirect state support for renewable energy.

“It’s good that our position was heard, but it’s important what the by-law will be in the end,” they say in the Community of Energy Consumers. “We hope that the accounting of funds from the sale of certificates and generation attributes in consumer payments under CSA RES will be full and fair” . The requirement for special regulation of the circulation of certificates specifically for CSA RES facilities looks inappropriate, the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy (ARVE) objects: additional sale of certificates or carbon credits.

The total installed capacity of CSA RES facilities, according to ARVE, exceeds 4 GW, generation in 2022 is 7.7 billion kWh. So far, the market for green certificates in Russia is not regulated. The national system can start operating towards the end of the year on the basis of the new structure of the Market Council (energy market regulator) – the Energy Certification Center. In particular, in order to issue certificates, companies will have to register power plants in a special register. Independent players will also be able to create their own systems for green tools. According to the Market Council, the demand for green tools in the first year or two could reach 10–50 billion kWh.

In 2022, the market for certificates and direct contracts with renewable energy sources in the Russian Federation amounted to about 130 million rubles, follows from the estimates of experts from ANO EnergyNet Center and Carbon Zero (operator of the voluntary Russian standard for green certificates). Taking into account the growth in demand for low-carbon goods and services, the tightening of carbon regulation in European and Asian countries, by 2030-2035 the market capacity in the Russian Federation may exceed 18 billion rubles. According to Vladislav Berezovsky, Development Director at Carbon Zero, the growing requirements for business decarbonization is a global trend, and decarbonization issues are paid as much attention in Asian markets as in the EU.

Polina Smertina