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Grid Emissionality: The REC Accounting Gap

Interactive 3D grid-dispatch simulator: watch merit-order power dispatch decide which plant actually sets the grid's marginal emissions, and see why buying Renewable Energy Certificates rarely changes it — the real 'emissionality gap' behind REC and Guarantee-of-Origin accounting.

Climate, Ecology & Environment3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Renewable Energy Certificates and Guarantees of Origin let a buyer claim "clean" electricity even though the grid delivers one shared mix of electrons to everyone. This simulator models the mechanism underneath that claim: real merit-order dispatch, where power plants are switched on cheapest-first until they meet demand, and the plant that clears the very last megawatt — the marginal plant — sets both the market price and the grid's true marginal emissions rate. Because wind and solar are dispatched first regardless of certificate ownership, buying a REC almost never changes which plant is marginal, exposing the gap between the emissions a buyer is allowed to claim avoided (grid-average accounting) and the emissions a REC purchase actually causes to be avoided (marginal/consequential accounting). A retirement toggle also demonstrates the double-counting risk that certificate registries exist to prevent.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D merit-order power dispatch simulator showing how the grid's marginal (price-and-emissions-setting) plant is chosen, and why buying a Renewable Energy Certificate rarely changes it — the gap between claimed and real avoided emissions behind REC and Guarantee-of-Origin accounting.

renewable energy certificatesgrid dispatchmarginal emissionscarbon accountingclimate policyenergy markets

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install