Prefer a video? Here’s an exhaustive webinar relevant to Virginia.

Here is the most common definition of an SREC: it’s a promise or a guarantee that the electricity you’re using came from a renewable resource. But while SRECs are intangible – a critical concept – they are also a commodity which can be bought and sold like a physical good. An “SREC” is an official certificate of authentication for renewable energy that has value in a market.

In fact, when your solar system generates electricity, that electricity is added to the “grid,” at which point differentiating it from energy that comes from other sources (like coal or natural gas) is impossible. An SREC is a document that serves as a proof of record that the energy indeed came from the renewable generation.

1 megawatt-hour (1,000 kilowatt-hours) of electricity produced by a solar energy system represents one SREC that enters the market. Rule of thumb: a 10kW system produces about 12 SRECs on annual basis.

We all agree that renewable energy has a unique value when compared to non-renewable energy. How is the value of the "renewableness" of the energy a solar system makes accounted for? SRECs! In other words, what if you could strip away the "renewableness" from the energy your solar system makes? You'd end up with undifferentiated energy/electricity and SRECs. SRECs provide a tried-and-true way to represent the valuable attribute of renewable energy in an exacting way. 1 MWh = 1 REC.

No. SRECs are not energy. A solar system generates renewable energy, right? We all agree that renewable energy is valuable, beyond non-renewable energy. How is the value of the "renewableness" of the energy a solar system makes accounted for? SRECs! In other words, what if you could strip away the "renewableness" from the energy your solar system makes? You'd end up with undifferentiated energy/electricity and SRECs. SRECs provide a tried-and-true way to represent the valuable attribute of renewable energy in an exacting way. 1 MWh = 1 REC.

In Virginia, you can make SRECs back to January 1st of the year in which your system is registered in PJM GATS. If you’re not previously registered, that means 1/1/24.

We know this may be disappointing if your system has been online for a couple years and you’ll miss out on SRECs you could have made if you’d registered earlier. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about that. If you have further questions, you can contact PJM GATS or the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

First, we make sure we have all the details we need to register your system in GATS, the regional SREC tracking system that Virginia uses.

Next, we register your system in GATS. We register systems on a rolling basis. It takes GATS a week or so to let us know your system was approved.

While we’re getting your system registered in GATS, we make sure we have access to your energy data. We can get you set up to report your energy automatically via API, which makes the reporting process a breeze and greatly minimizes effort on your part.

Once your system is approved in GATS, we will submit your first energy report to the tracking system at the beginning of the following month. This initial submission may include several months of backlog or retroactive energy readings.

Then, after a week or so, your SRECs are minted in the tracking system and we collect them in your account.

Now that SRECs are minted and accounted for, we can transact them for you. The timing of the first payment depends on what contract you signed.

Sellers on a Mint & Sell contract will generally see a transaction within 1-3 months of their first SRECs being minted. Annuity+ sellers will receive their initial payment within 45 days of their first SRECs minting. Same for 15-the year upfront contracts.

In sum, the time between signup and receiving a first payment will range from 40-70 days depending on the time of year and point in the month when GATS approves your system registration.

No. Definitely not.

Your energy bill will not change if you get registered and sell your SRECs. That’s because SRECs aren’t exactly “energy”. They are certificates that represent an attribute of your energy. You can think of them like proof that you made a finite amount of renewable solar energy.

SRECs represent the “renewableness” of the total amount of energy your system makes, not only the excess of what your system made. That’s why the energy readings needed to make SRECs must come directly from your inverter, not your power meter (which only tells the “net” part of the story).

You’re right to double check on this! Rest assured, SRECs don’t take away any credits you get for selling extra energy back to the grid.

SRECs are completely unrelated to IRS tax credits or federal incentives.

Rest assured that registering for SRECs do not affect your IRS tax credits.

We try to call SRECs “Solar Renewable Energy Certificates” so that don’t get confused with “credits”, such as tax credits or energy credited on your utility bill.

No.

Your system must be registered in a tracking system to “mint” SRECs. Virginia’s tracking system is called GATS. If you have had an operational system for awhile, but the system isn’t registered, no SRECs have been minted for your system.

Once your system is registered, it doesn’t mean SRECs are being minted. Every month or so often, the tracking system needs to know how much energy your system has made. Getting this data from you (your system) and into the tracking system is something we, your dutiful SREC aggregator, does for you. Sometimes we can get your energy data automatically. Other times we need to get the data manually if your monitoring equipment isn’t compatible with automatic generation gathering via API.

However, if you sign up with Sun Tribe Trading, we will do our darndest to make it feel like it’s all automatic.

We publish our prices here.

Long answer is… it depends!

Let’s assume we’re talking about SRECs from small PV systems (less than 1 megawatt AC). All residential systems fall into this category, and RECs from these systems are generally referred to as “VA carve-out RECs.”

Virginia’s a new market and transactions are infrequent, and it’s not always easy to pinpoint recent prices that SRECs are trading. That said, we’re doing our best to make sure our pricing reflects recent market data.

Generally since fall 2021, we’ve seen spot pricing in Virginia between $50 and $70 per SREC. See our pricing page.

Ah, good question.

No. Any credits you see listed on your utility bill are not SRECs. You can sell your SRECs (assuming you own them, which most residential customers do).

SRECs are sold separately from electricity. As a result, it does not matter if you use or sell the electricity to the “grid,” you are still entitled to receive SRECs for 100% of your energy production.

Unfortunately, RECs minted from WV-sited generators are not eligible for the “VA solar carve-out” RPS (renewable portfolio standard) pricing. The RPS eligibility requirements are clearly laid out in the law—only VA-sited PV generators less than 1MW AC or are eligible to sell into this new market.

However, non-VA-sited generators in WV can be assigned a VA state number, which makes their RECs eligible be procured in VA for compliance… but not at the RPS pricing, typically around $10 for Tier 1 PJM RECs.

We get this question a bunch. Perhaps the confusion comes from assignment of the VA state number in GATS to non-VA generators, combined with a past history of VA SRECs being able to sell into PA.

Great question—you can only “mint” SRECs going back to January 1st of the year the system is first registered w/ the tracking agency (GATS for Virginia). There are strictly no exceptions.

So, even though your system may have been online, making energy, and technically eligible to be registered in the tracking system in a previous calendar year, the deadline to register the system in a given calendar year is Dec 31. You don’t want to wait until the last minute—trust us!

How nice it would be if SRECs could retroactively mint, or back-mint into prior years, but it’s limited to the initial year the system is registered.

When you read another aggregator can “retroactively” mint and buy your SRECs—this explains how to interpret that.

There is one exception.

If you or someone made the wise decision to register your system for SRECs in a prior year AND there are unsold SRECs in the account associated with that system, it may be possible for us (or any aggregator) to purchase those unsold SRECs.

Sun Tribe Trading can make an offer on SRECs minted from 2018 and on. Generally, the older the SREC, the lesser its value—turns out they’re not like a fine wine.

At this point, we can do the work of gathering your monthly meter readings from the following systems in a fully automated way (via API):

• Enphase

• SolarEdge

• Fronius

• SMA

• Sense RGM

However, for all inverters we do everything we can so that you don’t need to manually report monthly energy.

• APsystems

• GAF

• Generac

• Sungrow

• SunPower

• SunRun

• Tesla

Your SREC income is up to you to report.

You should discuss with your tax accountant or tax lawyer what is the proper way to report this revenue stream on your tax returns.

At this time, Sun Tribe Trading will not be providing 1099s in accordance with the IRS tax code.

Yes, you can switch out of the Mint & Sell option, but not the other way around.

Depends.

The first thing to know is that once your system is registered to make SRECs, it will keep doing so as long as energy data is being reported to the tracking system. Your system could make SRECs even if you don’t have a contract in place.

The contract you have in place will determine how your SRECs are traded and you’re paid for your SRECs.

For example, if you sign a 3-year contract for 2022-2024, we will contact you before your contract expires (in mid-2024) to present you with new contract options. You’d sign a new contract and continue in 2025.

For the Mint & Sell contract, the renewal interval is indicated in the contract. When the term is up, you can renew.

For the 15-year upfront, you’d have the option to get a new contract in place after the term ends.

It depends on how you view your energy data in your app(s) or online portal. If the output of both inverters is combined and reported as one system, we would register it as one system and only one contract would be necessary.

However, if you have more than one unique app or you can see multiple, separate systems in your app or web portal, we would likely register as multiple systems and you would have to fill out multiple contracts. If at all in doubt, just give us a phone call.