We are here to help with this year's energy report. The first question people usually ask us is this: is buying an I-REC the same as buying renewable energy?
The honest answer is: it depends on what you mean by «buying renewable energy». There are three paths. Only in one is origin physical, direct, and exclusive. In the others, what you buy is title to the attributes of 1 MWh that was already injected into the grid.
If you want the instrument under a magnifying glass, there is the I-REC guide. If you want to build a plan (roof, contract, residual), there is how to bring Scope 2 down. This piece is the one that unpacks the sentence.
Let's start with another question
What does buying renewable energy mean in practice? Three paths. They are not three names for the same thing.
1. On-site generation: you produce it and you consume it
Panels on the roof, a plant next to the factory. The electron leaves your generation and enters your consumption without mixing in the public grid. It is the only path where you can say, without an asterisk, that origin is physical and exclusive.
Even then, for market-based reporting you still need the I-RECs retained in your name. If you sell them, the claim goes with them. And what you still take from the grid is not covered by the roof.
2. PPA: a contract plus a mixed grid
You sign with a generator. You get a price, sometimes volume, sometimes the story of a project. The electrons that arrive at your meter are still the grid's: they mixed with the rest of the system. What lets you say «this energy is renewable» in market-based Scope 2 are the I-RECs bundled to that generation, redeemed in your name.
Without those certificates you have an energy contract. You do not have attribute evidence. It fits free customers, with high consumption and a long horizon. A regulated customer, in most markets in the region, cannot build this path alone.
3. Unbundled I-REC: the evidence, apart from the power bill
You buy the certificate separately from the energy contract. It is still 1 MWh of renewable electricity attributed. It does not change the socket. It changes what you can say in the market-based inventory, if you redeem it in your name, for the country and the year you report.
It is the path of the regulated customer, of someone with several sites, of someone with a short deadline, or of the remainder when the roof and the PPA do not cover everything.
How it looks side by side
| What happens on the grid | What evidence remains | |
|---|---|---|
| On-site generation | The electron is yours, on site | I-REC retained in your name |
| PPA | Mixed electrons; a contract with a generator | Bundled I-REC, redeemed in your name |
| Regulated customer / residual | You still buy from your usual supplier | Unbundled I-REC, redeemed in your name |
The GHG Protocol asks for both readings: location (the grid average) and market (what you contracted). An I-REC can lower the second. A carbon credit cannot: it is booked on another line and your Scope 2 stays the same.
What you are buying, then
You buy title to the attributes of 1 MWh. A serial number. A beneficiary. A Redemption Statement an auditor can check against the registry. Integrity of the system: that megawatt hour cannot be attributed to two companies at once.
You are not buying a truck of green electrons. You are not buying your plant «turning solar» at three in the afternoon. You are not buying the grid's emissions switched off. You are buying evidence for the report, built the way the GHG Protocol asks.
That is why the opening question is answered badly with a dry yes or no. If by «buying renewable energy» you mean the roof, the I-REC is not that. If you mean «being able to prove renewable origin of grid electricity», then yes: the I-REC is exactly that instrument.
Does it help this year's report?
If you already measured the footprint and you are missing the how of electricity Scope 2, it can help. Especially if you are a regulated customer, if you have several sites, or if the PPA will not arrive in time.
If you have not measured yet, the certificate does not replace the inventory. If what you want is to offset carbon, you are in a different instrument.
Write to contacto@cerotrade.cl or tell us what you need. If you give us country, MWh, and reporting date, we will tell you plainly whether the certificate fits or whether the roof or the contract should come first.