A Guarantee of Origin (GO) is a tracking instrument defined in article 15 of the European Directive 2009/28/EC. A GO labels electricity from renewable sources to provide information to electricity customers on the source of their energy. Guarantees of origin are the only precisely defined instruments evidencing the origin of electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
In operation, a GO is a green label or tracker that guarantees that 1MWh of electricity has been produced from renewable energy sources. Guarantees of origin are traded. When a company buys guarantees of origin, as documentation for the electricity delivered or consumed, the guarantees of origin are cancelled in the electronic certificate registry, which for Greece is DAPEEP. This single standardized instrument makes it possible to track ownership, verify claims and ensure that guarantees of origin are only sold once and that there is no double counting.
In their most accomplished form, guarantees of origin are issued electronically for a controlled quantity of electricity generation (1 GO per MWh), unique, traded and redeemed (i.e. used) by suppliers as evidence to their customers of the quality of the delivered electricity.
Each GO provide the following information:
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a unique certification number
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the issuer
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the quantity of energy
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the renewable source
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the facility of production
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the period of production