An I-REC(E) (International Renewable Energy Certificate for Electricity) is an Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC; similar to other existing systems in the US and Europe) that represents the environmental attributes of the generation of one-megawatt hour of electricity.
Without the use of EACs, it would be impossible to make reliable claims about the origin of the electricity being consumed by a specific end- consumer, because electricity is not a tangible product that can be tracked through the grid. Once a producer injects an electrical charge into the grid there is no way to track the specific renewable origin of electrons through a grid. Therefore, the only reliable mechanism for making claims about the use of a specific charge from a specific origin that was taken off the grid is a system that books all injected charges as unique units (MWh).
This mechanism is called a book-and-claim system and is the cornerstone of EACs worldwide.
