BEC Lunchtime Seminar: Certifying Renewable Energy

To meet the growing demand for renewable energy and to help reduce emissions from energy use, we need more energy that users can be confident is from renewable sources. Energy users also need ways to validate claims about the energy content of their goods and services, particularly in exports.

Energy certification is emerging as a tool to support both needs, allowing transparency around the types of energy available and being used throughout New Zealand.

Tim Middlehurst, Chief Executive of Certified Energy, will outline the challenges and opportunities that energy certification brings, where certificates fit in international standards for reducing emissions and the role certification can play in the transition to renewable energy.

Brian Cox, Executive Officer at Bioenergy Association, will share his work leading industry adoption of standards for gaseous, liquid and solid biofuels. He will talk about recent developments and what role certificates could play in promoting bioenergy, and allowing blends to play a part in the transition.

Both speakers will look ahead to possible future developments for the system, gaps in current knowledge, and policy that may require further work.

Learn about how energy certificates:

• Gives consumers greater confidence about the impact of their energy use
• Enables producers to describe the energy impact of their goods and services
• How certificates are being used today, and recognised internationally
• The green gas standard currently under development
• Existing and emerging issues in biofuels and their certification