What’s more, it is a truly global phenomenon. Every part of the developed world wants green power and they don’t mind paying for it as its price rapidly approaches the price of power generated by conventional means.

Initially, green power was sold by fledgling power companies and environmental bodies. The RSPB for example, a bird conservancy group from the UK, sold power from renewable sources to the energy conscious and were swamped with demand. Other companies saw how popular this new energy was proving to be and jumped on the bandwagon. The same pattern was evident in other nations and the scale of alternative energy production grew enormously.

What has now emerged is a system of giving credits to energy produced from renewable resources. They are called Renewable Energy Certificates. The certificate says that the owner holds access to any number of MW of alternative power and these certificates are bought and sold. Certificates emerged because clarification was needed on who held which power and how much. The end user can now be sure that the power they are using comes from a renewable resource and that they are not using power that may have been ‘sold’ to somebody else. According to the US system there are different grades of green power and they also use Renewable Energy Certificates called ‘green tags’.

So if you are an Electric Company and want to provide power to a domestic or business customer, you now have to buy a Renewable Energy Certificate from one of the following governmental bodies.

If you are an end user and want to buy power for your home or business, you can also contact these groups below to find providers of renewable power.

www.green-e.org – US
www.enmax.com - Canada
www.epcor.ca – Canada

In Europe the body RECS is now responsible for the sale of Renewable Energy Certificates on www.recs.org and the body that will tie the European producers together is www.eugenestandard.org

These are interesting articles that are relevant to the subject.
www.biomatnet.org/secure/Other/S940.htm - article from 1998 on European policy
www.consumer.org.nz/powerswitch/default.asp - the perfect pricing website
www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/resources/pdfs/32155.pdf - report on European markets.
Whilst the RECS system is being finalized and until the system becomes global, these are contacts for companies that can provide you with power from renewable sources.

www.greenpower.gov.au/pages/Home-Who-Sells.php - Australia
www.electricitywatch.org. – Australia

NZ is developing its own green power system but has not been pressured into this as most of the power is green anyway.

www.cyberium.co.uk/greenpower.htm - UK
www.ukenergy.co.uk/pages/green.htm - UK
www.greenelectricity.org –UK
www.yren.org.uk/docs/green-tariff.html#sup – UK

www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/... - US
www.green-e.org/your_e_choices/pyp.html - US
www.ecobusinesslinks.com/green_electricity_providers... - US

www.electricitychoices.org/greenpower.html - Canada
www.environmentaldefense.ca/aveda/action.htm - Canada

www.airtricity.com – Ireland
www.nie.co.uk/nieenergy/ecoenergy/index.htm - Ireland
www.agama.co.za – SA
www.tepco.co.jp/corp-com/green/index-j.html - Japan
www.oekostrom.eawag.ch/level0/links_greenpower.html - Germany
www.naturemade.org – Switzerland
www.energieprijzen.nl – Netherlands
www.snf.se/bmv/bmv-register/elektricitet.cfm - Sweden
www.vaihdavirtaa.net – Finland
www.electranorte.es – Spain

Many nations of the world find it difficult to think about supplying power in the first place, never mind power with green credentials. These nations fall into the category defined by the Kyoto Protocol as nations employing a Clean Development Mechanism. This is a policy that helps nations to use their power more efficiently and have environmental procedures in place. They receive financial help from the developed nations of the world to do so and include India and China. (Most nations think that India and China have been lucky not to have had any quotas for power reduction placed upon them).

Information on Green Power for nations that operate under the Clean Development Mechanism.

www.eng-consult.com/CDMSAsia.aspx