Product Abstract

The Eighth National Green Power Marketing Conference -- Increasing Access, Appeal, and Awareness -- reviewed the status of the green power marketing industry and explored innovative ways of designing and marketing green power products. The conference, held in Chicago, Illinois, November 3–5, 2003, was organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), EPRI, and Center for Resource Solutions. The conference was cosponsored by EPRI; the Office of Power Technologies, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. DOE; U.S. EPA; Center for Resource Solutions; City of Chicago; ComEd; Green Mountain Energy Company; Sterling Planet, Inc.; and Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.

Objective

The goals of the Green Power Marketing Conference were to review the past year's green power highlights, analyze utility green pricing programs, present insights into how to target green power demand, examine green certificate trading and tracking mechanisms, and identify the best ways to market and sell green power. EPRI presented Green Power Leadership Awards to recognize those significantly advancing the development of renewable electricity sources in the marketplace.

Approach

Day 1 sessions at the conference focused on Green Power and the Future of Renewable Energy, Green Pricing in the Midwest, Renewable Energy Certificates: Market Trends and New Initiatives, and Strategies for Improving Appeal. Day 2 sessions emphasized Marketing Green Power to Business Customers, Environmental Drivers for Green Power, Strategies for Increasing Awareness, Policies and Standards to Support Green Power Markets, and Strategies for Expanding Access. Day 3 sessions addressed Targeting Green Power Customers, Utility Green Pricing Programs, and Green Power Marketing Strategies.

Results

The conference highlighted the following themes and messages:

• Green power markets continue to expand in the United States. Green power is now available from nearly 400 retail providers in 40 states plus the District of Columbia, and green power markets support more than 1000 MW of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.

• Increasingly, energy market observers view green power markets as important to the future expansion of the renewable energy industry. While a primary deployment driver is the establishment of renewables portfolio standards at the state level, the trend of rising energy prices, particularly for natural gas, is improving the competitive market position of renewable energy projects. The success of voluntary purchase markets also provides policymakers with clear evidence of public support for renewable energy development.

• Green power programs are providing utilities with valuable experience concerning the development and operation of renewable energy projects, paving the way, in some instances, for utilities to procure additional renewable energy resources on behalf of all customers.

• In a period of rising fossil fuel prices, fixed-price renewable energy generation can provide "hedge value" benefits for customers, or additional revenue to renewable energy generators that can reduce green power premiums. However, few utilities or marketers include price stability benefits as a feature of their green power products.

• The use of renewable energy certificates (RECs) is becoming more prevalent in green power markets. However, rules and regulations to govern REC sales are still being considered, including issues of attributes ownership, the interaction of voluntary and compliance markets, and the relationship of RECs to emissions trading markets.

• Businesses, government, and other institutional customers continue to announce major green power purchases. Through these purchases, larger customers are realizing such values as public relations and earned media, hedging against fossil fuel price volatility and escalation, product and brand differentiation, and strengthening customer and other stakeholder relations.

EPRI Perspective

A large gap continues to exist between expressed consumer willingness to pay for renewable energy and customer participation in green power programs. This conference offered a number of strategies for closing the gap, including building greater awareness of green power products through mass marketing and advertising and developing communication strategies targeting the renewables market. Previous national green power conferences are documented in EPRI reports TR-109179, TR-112315, TR-114878, 1004649, 1004043, and 1004318.