Renewable Energy Certificates

A Simple Solution for Clean Electricity Verification 

As businesses increasingly seek ways to meet their sustainability goals, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) offer a straightforward and reliable solution to track and verify the use of clean electricity. At Etana, we provide RECs to our customers as part of our clean energy offering. 

 A REC is an official document proving that one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source, like a wind or solar plant. These certificates are issued by and recorded in a digital registry managed by an independent authority, which ensures their integrity. 

RECs are allocated to Etana by our renewable electricity suppliers, and we then pass them on to our customers based on the amount of renewable electricity they consume in a year. This allows businesses to credibly report on their low-carbon electricity consumption and enhance their sustainability efforts. As owners of these certificates, customers have two primary options: 

1. Retiring RECs: Customers can "retire" their RECs, meaning they link them to their own electricity consumption in that year. This way, a company can credibly claim that a certain percentage of its electricity came from renewable sources. 

2. Trading RECs: Alternatively, customers can sell their RECs. For example, if a company only needs 50% of its electricity to be from renewables, but it has additional RECs, it can sell those on the market to other companies looking to meet their own carbon reduction targets. 

By choosing Etana, businesses receive not only competitively priced electricity from renewable sources, but also the means to prove where their electricity has come from. RECs provide a powerful tool for traceable, clean electricity usage, and enable businesses to meet their specific decarbonisation targets and enhance their sustainability profiles. 

How Etana Ensures Forward Electricity Price Certainty for Our Customers

We offer customers forward price certainty through a tariff linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Businesses operating in South Africa no longer have to contend with fast-rising above-inflation electricity tariffs - Etana’s pricing model allows companies to lock in a large percentage of electricity rates for up to 20 years.  

In today’s environment, it’s difficult for businesses to know how much they will be paying for electricity in the years ahead. For industries like mining, manufacturing, and steel production, managing electricity expenses and having long-term certainty is essential for financial stability and competitiveness.   

Electricity tariffs have increased by well above the inflation rate for the past 15 years. This presents a challenge for businesses who need to plan their budgets and manage long-term costs, especially when their operations require electricity around the clock.  

Etana offers a solution designed to meet these challenges. Through our Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), we provide a single electricity price with long-term certainty. Our tariff adjusts with the Consumer Price Index each year, allowing businesses to lock in inflation-linked pricing over the duration of the PPA, whether that’s 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years.   

We deliver electricity from both solar and wind farms, covering up to 70% of your electricity needs with renewable, including peak periods outside of solar generation hours. This way, you can maximise your savings and achieve higher decarbonisation levels. 

For businesses prioritising sustainability, financial predictability, and cost savings, Etana is the ideal partner. 

Why Solar Alone Isn't Enough: Wind’s Vital Role in the Clean Energy Mix

As businesses face rising electricity costs and decarbonisation pressure, combining solar and wind energy offers a sustainable solution that reduces carbon footprints, saves costs and ensures long-term price certainty. 

Electricity prices in South Africa have increased by 31.4% over the past two years, driving businesses to seek cost-effective alternatives (1). At the same time, carbon regulations, like Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and impending local carbon taxes, are putting pressure on companies to decarbonise or face penalties. As a result, many have turned to solar energy. Solar offers a cost-effective renewable energy source during daylight hours and, in many instances, can be installed on-site.  

For businesses with operations restricted to daylight hours, solar might be able to cover a high percentage of your electricity needs, significantly reduce energy costs and lower their carbon footprint.  

However, for industries like mining, manufacturing, data centres and others with 24/7 operations, solar alone can’t cover the constant electricity demand. This is where wind energy becomes vital. Wind energy generates at different times throughout the day and night, providing a strong complement to solar energy. With this combination, companies can seamlessly transition to low-carbon electricity and save money.

Wind energy is particularly important for energy intensive industries that are facing increasing pressure to decarbonise from regulators, consumers, and global markets. Especially for exporters facing international carbon regulations, like the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in Europe, access to high levels of renewable energy is no longer just desirable—it’s essential.   

By utilising both wind and solar energy, businesses not only reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, but also their electricity costs, whilst contributing to a more sustainable and reliable electricity system in South Africa.  

First Come First Serve 

The challenge for businesses looking to access wind is that there are few places left where new wind projects can connect to the grid without requiring major grid upgrades, which can take a long time to complete. Businesses that don’t act quickly may be left behind, relying solely on solar in the near to medium term as a clean energy solution.

By securing wind energy now, companies can ensure a more stable, long-term energy supply, positioning themselves to stay competitive and meet both current and future regulatory and consumer demands.   

Etana Energy’s tailored renewable energy solutions combine wind and solar, offering businesses the ability to achieve up to 70% renewable energy coverage, reduce carbon footprints, and stay competitive in the global market. Now is the time to act—to secure your share of wind power that can connect to the grid in the near future and before regulatory pressures intensify. 

Resources 

1. https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/744295/how-much-prepaid-electricity-will-cost-in-south-africa-after-the-2024-price-hikes/ 

How Wind and Solar Together Meet Business Demands

This week in Cape Town, energy leaders and innovators gather at Windaba 2024 to discuss how wind energy is shaping the future of South Africa's renewable energy landscape. As industries like mining and manufacturing face increasing pressure to decarbonise and cut electricity costs, wind power is emerging as a key solution. The ability to harness wind both day and night makes it an ideal complement to solar energy, offering a reliable path to sustainability and price stability for energy-intensive businesses.

Wind energy is a key resource for energy intensive South African businesses that are aiming to decarbonise and lower their electricity costs.

The wind blows both day and night making it a natural complement to solar power, which generates in daylight hours.

Over the past decade, wind energy costs globally have dropped dramatically, making it cheaper per kWh than new coal power or current grid tariffs.

Wind has also become accessible through wheeling, which gives businesses access to renewable energy through the national grid.

Businesses can simply purchase clean energy via a power purchase agreement with an electricity trader.

By pairing wind with solar, Etana Energy helps companies cover up to 70% of their electricity needs with renewables.

With us, businesses can cover more of their electricity needs across different times of day and seasons, helping them meet their ambitious sustainability targets.

How Does Electricity Trading Work?

Electricity traders, like Etana Energy, are a game-changer for large South African energy users.

Thanks to our sourcing of wind energy combined with solar, we can help our customers cover up to 70% of their electricity needs with low carbon energy, delivering savings from Day 1 and providing long term price certainty—without any upfront costs and no infrastructure on their site.

So how how does it work? Here is a one-minute explainer

Your business needs electricity to run, which you get through the electricity grid.

Today most of this electricity is generated by coal, at ever increasing cost, but you’d like affordable cleaner energy to stay competitive and reduce your carbon footprint.

What if there was a way to cover up to 70% of your electricity needs with clean energy; delivering savings from Day 1; and providing long term price certainty; without any upfront costs?

That’s where Etana Energy comes in. Etana buys electricity from various renewable energy generators - wind and solar farms and sells that energy to customers, like you, who then get clean electricity via the grid.

There’s no upfront cost, and no infrastructure on site. We sign a power purchase agreement with you, and install a meter. You pay Etana every month for the clean electricity you use, and pay Eskom or your municipality for the remainder of the electricity.

Clean and simple!