Interaction of Compliance and Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets

In recent years, both compliance and voluntary markets have emerged to help support the development of renewable energy resources. Both of these markets are growing rapidly and today about half of U.S. states have RPS policies in place, with a number of these policies adopted in the last several years. In addition, many states have recently increased the stringency of their RPS policies. Thispaper examines key market interaction issues between compliance and voluntary renewable energy markets. It provides an overview of both the compliance and voluntary markets, addressing each market's history, purpose, size, scope, and benefits while addressing issues, including double counting.