Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) today announces the launch of Australia’s first fully electronic Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) market, affectionately titled TRECs.
On the back of the last election, with the current Government’s pledge to retain the Renewable Energy Target (RET), CTX began the development process to create a REC Trading Platform to provide the market with a secure, transparent and liquid web-based trading environment to spot trade RECs.
CTX deferred the launch of TRECs until the recent commitment from Clive Palmer and his PUP party to reject its repeal or wind back. The RET aims to encourage the generation of electricity from renewable sources and to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by creating Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) and Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), both of which will be tradable on the platform.
The trading of RECs provides financial incentives for investment in renewable energy power stations, and for the installation of smaller scale renewable electricity sources such as solar panels. It also supports large scale renewable projects such as wind farms or solar farms, which is now the dominant source of power in some EU countries such as Germany.
The CTX REC market provides a single exchange platform for buyers, sellers and brokers, increasing liquidity and transparency in the market, and avoiding the over-the-counter processes that involve additional costs and greater risk.
Wayne Sharpe, CTX Chairman and Founder said “Providing a liquid, secure and transparent market for environmental assets allows legislated and voluntary participation into a network of global exchanges. During our R&D phase, CTX canvassed approximately 80 per cent of the Australian REC market, so we expect that within a month this will be the only place to be – hence we called it TRECs. The TRECs Exchange will change the market dynamic by increasing liquidity and price transparency by providing a centralised marketplace for participants”.
CTX’s CEO, Baden Wright, added “As a global leader in the environmental exchange sector, our Sydney-based team are tackling the world and showing leadership that appears to be lacking in many other Australian companies – to provide technology solutions to solve the planet’s greatest challenges.”
In line with CTX’s continued global expansion, there are plans to also launch into the US REC market in the near future, across multiple state-based markets, to match its already global carbon platform.
The price of LGC RECs jumped by over 40% immediately following Clive Palmer’s meeting with Al Gore and his announcement supporting the Renewable Energy Target.
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