If you’ve installed solar at your home and are now basking in the I’m-saving-the-planet warm glow, you may be in for a splash of ice water. There’s a good chance someone else has purchased your halo and is wearing it right now.
You see, in practically every state, rooftop PV is recognized as green with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that correspond to the amount of electricity they produce. But if you are leasing the panels or buying the electricity they produce under a power purchase agreement, then the third-party owner (TPO) of the system gets the RECs. Most TPOs are selling those RECs to another electricity vendor or customer, who can match them up with power from a “brown” source and magically turn those brown electrons green.