Green Pricing/Marketing Study, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

ANTARES produced a report incorporating the major lessons learned from current green pricing programs and analyzed how biomass power may benefit from such programs. The report provided power suppliers with information on incorporating biopower into their plans and helping customers understand the subtleties of these programs. The report discussed green market structure issues, the danger of "green washing," and suggested definitions for "green" versus " renewable." It then focused on contract and certification issues, provided an assessment of the benefits and hurdles to using biopower in a green pricing program, and reviewed how renewable and green pricing will fare in a restructured environment. The report concluded with an analysis of the minimum and maximum numbers of customers needed to support two levels of biopower market penetration using a model developed by ANTARES. Finally, recommendations for the biomass power program and their impact on potential biopower project development were presented.