Ewec opens registration for 4Q clean energy certificates auction: The Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) kicked off registration for its 4Q 2023 clean energy certificates (CEC) auction yesterday, according to a statement. Bidding for Ewec’s CECs will close on Thursday, 14 December.

What are CECs? Renewable energy certificates (RECs) — of which clean energy certificates fall under — are a MWh-by-MWh way of proving that you own or created renewable energy. An REC is issued when one MWh is delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy source, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes. While carbon credits help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy certificates offset non-renewable electricity use.The certificates are currently the only mechanism in Abu Dhabi guaranteeing clean energy utilization, according to the statement.

Ewec’s best trading year yet: The company has garnered the largest number of auction participants to date, the statement notes. Ewec made its biggest single sale of CECs to the UAE’s digital infrastructure developer Two Zero last May, selling 7k GWh of clean energy. Earlier in January, the company sold over 9k GWh worth of certificates to Abu Dhabi-based entities across different sectors, six months after the company’s fourth auction was held in June 2022.

The company has been lining up the green energy for upcoming CEC auctions: The company was part of the Masdar-led consortium that inaugurated the 2 GW Al Dhafra Solar park in Abu Dhabi last week. Ewec would be the project’s sole power offtaker.Earlier in October, Ewec secureda power purchase agreement (PPA) for the clean energy that will be generated by the UAE’s first wind power program. Ewec also invited developers to submit expressions of interest for the development of the 1.5 GW Khazna solar farm back in September, and plans to commission at least two other 1.5 GW solar projects as part of a target to increase Abu Dhabi’s solar capacity annually by 1 GW in the next decade.

Tags: