Green electricity certificate system accelerates green transition in village in E China

At the front desk of a family hotel in Yucun Village, in east China's Zhejiang Province, sits a green electricity certificate. This is the first time the hotel owner, Ge Jun, has received one from the local power supply company. 

Last month, his family hotel consumed 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. Instead of using the electricity generated by coal, he bought green electricity generated by wind power from a new energy company located in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, contributing to a reduction of 8,719 kilograms of carbon emissions.

A green electricity certificate certifies that the electricity used by a business or individual is generated by renewable energy sources.

Like Ge, there are many hotel and cafe owners in the village who buy green electricity. The certificate is regarded as a sign of environmental responsibility and attracts more public recognition for their business.

"Nowadays, when enterprises do business, many will be asked whether they use green electricity," said Zhuang Xiaodan, director of the trading department of Zhejiang Power Exchange Center, Co., Ltd.

In August, Yucun Village bought green electricity for the first time. It purchased about 6.3 million kWh of green electricity generated by solar and wind power from Ningxia, Heilongjiang, Anhui and other places, and was issued nearly 3,000 certificates, equivalent to reducing 2,869 tonnes of carbon emissions.

In July 2017, China opened its Green Electricity Certificate system as a pilot to allow businesses and individuals to buy renewable energy voluntarily. 

By September 2017, China had issued 8 million certificates, corresponding to 8 billion kWh of on-grid wind and solar electricity, equivalent to what Beijing's residents consume on average over a five-month period, according to RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative committed to 100 percent renewable electricity.

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