Tenants at Growthpoint Properties' commercial buildings will soon be able to use blockchain-based trading that allows them to monetise their renewable energy usage or improve their green credentials.
The real estate management company has partnered with tech start-up Fuel Switch on a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) trading platform.
This allows RECs to be purchased, sold or traded by Growthpoint tenants through their e-CO2 (electricity minus carbon dioxide) green energy project, enabling renewable energy generated at one site to be reallocated to different buildings and tenants.
The automated system proves the electricity was generated from a renewable energy source — water, sun and wind — and fed back into the national grid. One REC represents 1MWh of electricity produced.
The project will kick off in October at its Sandton buildings and will also be offered to selected properties countrywide.
Fuel Switch COO Gideon Maasz said “tenants up to now did not have a choice where they get electricity from”, but now have the agency to select more renewable sources.
Growthpoint’s e-CO2 tenants will automatically receive RECs and can access additional certificates which can be used to “support their environmental, social and governance reporting, reduce scope two emissions or traded for financial benefits, creating environmental and commercial value”, he said.
Werner van Antwerpen, head of corporate advisory at Growthpoint, said the initiative aims to benefit companies with environmental reporting requirements, renewable energy producers and brokers operating in the green energy market.
The project also aligns with the Climate Change Act President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law last year, which aims to “enable the development of an effective climate change response and a long-term, just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy and society for South Africa”.
Fuel Switch CEO Jan-Paul Spangenberg said the REC platform “sits in the middle of a blockchain-based marketplace that certifies renewable energy” and introduces consumers, off-takers and brokers to an easy-to-navigate service that can “integrate with other exchanges”, such as the JSE Ventures Carbon Market.
Fuel Switch works with South Africa’s Renewable Energy Council registry, zaRECs, and the global I-REC standards governed by the I-Track Foundation.
Maasz explained how the reporting of RECs works: “We portion this data in the correct format to integrate into these registries and we give it to the registry in the way they need it, but in a cost-effective way for our clients.”
Van Antwerpen added it used to be expensive for a tenant to register an account on an international registry, but Fuel Switch has managed to slash that cost to almost zero.
Instead of outdated manual systems, Fuel Switch’s blockchain-based platform enables secure and transparent transfer of RECs, which ensures “auditability aligned with global ESG standards”. This blockchain also provides distributed ledger transparency and traceability for all transactions, as well as rapid transaction speeds of more than 10,000 per second.
Marius Meyer, head of energy at Growthpoint, said to date “34 of our projects have been registered for renewable energy certificates”.
Growthpoint has invested in clean energy for more than a decade and in 2023 it signed a deal for hydroelectric power with Etana Energy, securing 195GWh annually.
The company also has large utility scale solar projects distributed and installed at a number of its buildings. Said Meyer: “In total, we've got about 80 of these systems that make the 51MWp of solar projects.”
Business Times
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