The Danish Energy agency DEA has announced that it aims to create a market place for green electricity by 2001 to stimulate the use of renewable energy and reduce CO2 emissions. The project is part of Denmarks energy policy in pursuit of its aims under the Kyoto agreement to reduce CO2 emissions by 21 per cent between 1990 and 2010.
The main engine of change will be legislation obliging end users to take 20 per cent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2003. Power producers will obtain a certificate for the green power they produce and customers will be able to buy them via green market distributors. The market would be open to other participants such as producers and brokers offering financial contracts such as futures and options. The certificate is intended to ensure investments are made in green technology, and create a more effective replacement for the existing system of subsidies on renewable energy, an arrangement that has sometimes led to the kind of oversubsidising that has been seen in the windpower industry.
