The Electricity Grid Displacement Factor (EGDF) or the grid factor measures how much carbon dioxide emissions are being produced by the electricity grid.
It’s like a score – higher means there is more electricity produced by fossil-fuels flowing through the grid than electricity produced by zero-emission power plants. We multiply this score by the amount of electricity your solar PV system produces in order to calculate the emissions reductions and turn them into carbon offsets. The Alberta Emission Offset System (AEOS) uses fixed scores that are updated every year.
So, if the EGDF is high, your solar electricity production reduces a high amount of carbon dioxide emissions and will result in more carbon offsets.
If it is lower, your solar electricity production reduces less emissions and will result in fewer carbon offsets.
However, if you sign up with Re(source), your solar PV system will use the grid factor during the year it becomes a part of Re(source) for its entire term. So, signing up sooner will result in significantly higher carbon offset payments.
The table below shows the published EGDF for the Alberta electric grid from 2024 to 2029.
Vintage
Electricity Grid Displacement Factor with line loss applied (tCO2e/MWh)
2024
0.5226
2025
0.4907
2026
0.4588
2027
0.4271
2028
0.3952
2029
0.3633
Canada’s minimum national price on GHG emissions calculated in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is $65 per tonne in 2023, and increases by $15 per year to $170 per tonne CO2e in 2030 according to the following schedule: Year Minimum Carbon Price $CAD/tonne CO2e 2023$65 2024$80 2025$95 2026$110 2027$125 2028$140 2029$155
Additionality is the property of an activity adding something new to the context. It is a determination of whether an intervention has an effect when compared to a baseline measurement. Additionality is a crucial component of carbon offset creation because if it is not additional, a carbon offset does not reduce
Re(source) Energy, Tribe Solar, and International Renewable Energy Systems Inc conducted a solar energy assessment for the Jerry Forbes Centre Foundation‘s Centre for Community Spirit. The Centre hosts 25 charities and nonprofits:630 CHED Santas AnonymousABC Head Start SocietyAlberta DreamsArts on the AveCeliac EdmontonCanadian Hard of Hearing AssociationCaregivers AlbertaChildren’s Heart SocietyChristmas