GoO - Guarantee of Origin

Relevance

GoO - Guarantee of Origin is a proof of origin and no Label (no trademark).

It is obligatory for the EU member states to submit GoO to electricity producers when they produce electricity based on renewable energy sources.

The Guarantee of Origin shall ensure that the buyer of green electricity has the guarantee that the electricity is produced from renewable energy sources as defined within the meaning of the Directive 2001/77/EC. The GoO should avoid fraud when trading the green electricity.

The Directive 2001/77/EC defines “renewable energy sources shall mean renewable non-fossil fuels (wind, solar, geothermal, wave, tidal, hydroelectric installations with a capacity below 10 MW and biomass which means products from agriculture and forestry, vegetable waste from agriculture, forestry and from the food production industry, untreated wood waste and cork waste)”.

Furthermore “electricity from renewable energy sources shall mean electricity generated by plants using only renewable energy sources; the part of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in hybrid plants using conventional sources of energy, in particular for back-up purposes, may be included in this definition”.

Awarding Institution & criteria

Each GoO is based on national legislation; and each national legislation has to be in line with Directive 2001/77/EC, paragraph 5. In some countries, the energy market regulator is the issuing body, in other countries it is the Transmission System Operator (TSO).

A guarantee of origin shall:

• specify the energy source from which the electricity was produced, specifying the dates and places of production, and in the case of hydroelectric installations, indicate the capacity;
• serve to enable producers of electricity from renewable energy sources to demonstrate that the electricity they sell is produced from renewable energy sources within the meaning of the Directive 2001/77/EC.

The GoO is not identical with the information on the environmental impact in terms of CO₂ emissions and radioactive waste resulting from electricity production from different energy sources (see Directive 2003/54/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity).

Relevance on the market

GoO are tradable under the RECS (Renewable Energy Certificate System; www.recs.org) regime. The RECS system is based on an international standard for trading certificates like the Guarantee of Origin or the RECS Certificate on a voluntary level.