Registries that track and issue renewable energy certificates (RECs) are supplying more data to voluntary market participants as buying habits — and scrutiny on those habits — take on new layers of complexity.
REC buyers are calling for more data to inform their purchases. The registries aiming to satisfy those requests, such as by adding generation tracking on an hourly basis, have been careful to work within the existing market framework.
Providing information like hourly tracking is not "about replacing the existing REC infrastructure" but expanding it, according to Jeff Berman, vice president for registry solutions at Xpansiv, which owns the North American Renewables Registry (NAR).
"At the core, the only difference should be at the point of issuance," he said. "Instead of having a month and a year vintage, you have an hour and a day vintage. Ultimately, what you are designing should be no different than what exists on a broad level from what exists today."
In some cases, buyers may not be aware of the distinction, unless they take a closer look at the data.
"You can have a generator that opts into the [hourly tracking] process, and the certificates won't be issued as a traditional monthly certificate but, for all intents and purposes, will act like one," CleanCounts chief executive Ben Gerber said.
The war in the weeds
The increased focus on additional data in part stems from standard-setting organizations, such as the GHG Protocol, planning tighter requirements for scope 2 emissions accounting. The GHG Protocol is mulling not only hourly requirements, but also constraints on project location and age.
Traditionally, REC accounting has been volumetric. Buyers retire credits on a monthly or annual basis to cover their power use, which means they continue to rely on other forms of generation when renewables are not available, even if on their books they exclusively use zero-emissions electricity. Companies have largely used their own discretion when choosing projects, with some selecting generation in the same region and others prioritizing support in areas with less wind or solar, even if it is across the country.
The proposed changes are "rooted in the growing need for more accurate emissions accounting", according to the GHG Protocol, which intends to implement the revisions at the end of 2028.
The proposal has sparked backlash from businesses and raised concerns that the new rules could undercut corporate efforts to scrub emissions from the power sector. More sophisticated requirements could increase reporting burdens and costs, discouraging clean energy procurements.
Supporters have dismissed the skepticism as an expected reaction to revamping entrenched practices. The shift to full hourly tracking would not be immediate, EnergyTag head of US policy and markets Alex Piper said during a panel at the Renewable Energy Markets 2026 conference in September.
"I think hourly matching is often equated to 24/7," Piper said. "24/7 is way down the road, and it is not the same thing as starting an hourly matching journey."
A more expansive future
The new guidelines are not the lone driver of evolving attitudes in the voluntary markets. Large companies, particularly in the tech sector, have eyed using zero-emissions generation at all hours for several years.
But conversations about sustainability have become "more focused on outcomes" as buyers have developed more nuanced understandings of how power systems work, according to Berman. That shift has amplified discourse around dispatchable resources, particularly nuclear. The trend has already resulted in companies like Google reviving shuttered nuclear plants. Echoing that interest, Xpansiv's CBL platform in the past year launched "emissions-free energy certificates" for the PJM and NEPOOL markets to provide a tradeable instrument for nuclear.
Registries are still analyzing the demand for more niche inclusions. CleanCounts plans to launch other, more granular offerings in late 2026 or early 2027, including information to denote generators on tribal lands, agrivoltaic projects and hydropower stations certified by Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) for minimizing their environmental impacts. The LIHI tag already appears on certain qualifying projects in the NAR registry.
Buyers will likely place importance on new resource traits as the market continues to evolve. NAR has garnered interest from carbon capture and storage facilities, and it is working on time-shifted certificates that would better capture the benefits of energy storage systems. NAR plans to implement the feature "in the near future", Berman said.
While companies and accountability watchdogs will ultimately determine demand, the registries that make the markets function will continue to refine their offerings in response.
"We'll provide the mechanism to do it and let people decide," Gerber said. "But we do know that the future of these certificates really is based off of the need to have access to more granular information."
