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9 Aug 2024

The RSM is now more carbon intensive with certificate volumes up by 41%

Read the full Annual RSM Publication for 2023/2024 here.

We are excited to announce significant growth in the volume of New Zealand Energy Certificates (NZ-ECs) traded this year, with redeemed volumes up 41% on the previous year!

We had 1.78 million certificates redeemed on our system this production year (1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024), up from 1.26 million on the previous production year. The growth was largely driven by the registration of 10 new renewable production devices, mainly from new wind and solar generation. Wind and solar combined now make up nearly 20% of our total certificate volumes.

The number of energy users in the BraveTrace network has also grown to 307, up from 212 last year. It is great to see the increasing number of energy users realising the value of redeeming certificates to reduce their scope 2 emissions and support renewable generation here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Not only does an increase in certification volumes support the energy transition by enabling new renewable generation possibilities, it also increases the carbon intensity of emissions factors for non-certifying businesses. In practical terms, the growth in certification volumes has continued to widen the gap between the National Supply Mix (NSM) and the Residual Supply Mix (RSM). We now see a more carbon intensive RSM, which is 4.46% higher than the NSM. The gap between the two has widened from 3.14% the previous year. As these figures continue to diverge, non-certifying businesses face higher reported scope 2 emissions.

BraveTrace welcomes all compliant certification into the RSM calculations in order to further increase the gap between the RSM and NSM. We are actively working to bring other users into the calculation to further incentivise renewable energy procurement.

We’d like to thank the whole BraveTrace Network for working with us towards our shared purpose of accelerating the renewable energy transition.