Sales of Voluntary Green Power

This research documents the status and trends of the market for renewable energy procured voluntarily through seven mechanisms: utility green pricing, utility renewable contracts, unbundled renewable energy certificates (RECs), competitive suppliers, community choice aggregations (CCAs), power purchase agreements (PPAs), and community solar.

The most recent update, Status and Trends in the U.S. Voluntary Green Power Market (2019 Data), released in 2020, finds that about 7.8 million customers procured about 164 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of green power in 2019, representing 1 in 20 U.S. retail electricity customers and about 4% of U.S. retail electricity sales. The voluntary green power market now accounts for about 32% of all U.S. renewable energy generation, excluding large hydropower.

This market expansion is primarily attributable to increasing green power sales through off-site power purchase agreements and purchase of unbundled RECs by non-residential customers. On a customer basis, participants in community choice aggregation programs dominate the market and have increased from 1.4 million in 2015 to 4.7 million in 2019. 

This research includes state-level analysis of the geography of voluntary green power sales and customers. Green power demand is higher in states such as Illinois, California, Texas, and Massachusetts, where local green power options are available, but demand exists in every state in both urban and rural areas. For data and visualizations of these geographic trends, see https://openei.org/wiki/US_Voluntary_Green_Power_Market_2019

Reports from All Years:

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/77915.pdf (2019 data)
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/74862.pdf (2018 data)
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72204.pdf (2017 data)
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/70174.pdf (2016 data)
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/67147.pdf (2015 data)
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/65252.pdf (2014 data)
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63052.pdf (2013 data)
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/60210.pdf (2012 data)
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/56128.pdf (2011 data)
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/52925.pdf (2010 data)

Related Resources: Visit NREL's Voluntary Green Power Procurement page.