A week ago at COP28 the United States Federal Government, the nation’s largest energy user, signed the UN 24/7 carbon free energy (CFE) compact committing to match every hour of power consumption with carbon-free energy on every grid globally. This is a new approach to energy sourcing known as 24/7 carbon free energy (CFE) whereby energy buyers can massively reduce their carbon footprint by matching their energy demand with clean and renewable power every hour of every day.
Marianne Karu, Business and Communication Director at Eurelectric.
The EU has been spearheading the adoption of hourly matching in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) as part of the certification rules to qualify hydrogen as renewable. Following the EU example, the US is now considering similar rules for the clean hydrogen production tax credit created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Why is this big news?
24/7 CFE is the next level in corporates’ commitments to decarbonisation. Today, prevailing CO2 and renewable reporting systems used by large energy consumers do not account for the actual type of energy physically consumed at a specific time. Without local hourly matching, a big company in one location can take its assets’ average annual energy consumption, purchase that same volumetric amount with the help of renewable energy certificates and claim to be powered by “100% renewable energy” on paper.
While achieving 100% annual renewable procurement is a valuable effort to add renewable capacity, this does not actually guarantee zero emissions. What is often ignored is that these renewables pledges are based on annual consumptions at different times and places from the actual time and place of consumption.
With a 24/7 CFE approach, instead, corporates can match their energy use with certified clean and renewable power on an hourly or sub-hourly basis. Any big energy user can achieve their hourly match by procuring clean electricity on the same grid and generated at the same hour as where they consume power.
To maximise hourly matching, corporates can add storage, demand response, and flexible technologies to their energy portfolio, complementing variable renewables. Granular energy certificates validated by meter and grid data with a time