Blok-Z has joined the Granular Certificate (GC) Trading Alliance as a supporter. This initiative, convened by LevelTen Energy in collaboration with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), aims to transform the clean energy market.

The GC Trading Alliance brings together industry leaders such as AES, Constellation, Google, Microsoft, and LevelTen Energy to create a robust transaction infrastructure for buying, selling, and tracking hourly carbon-free energy (CFE) through granular certificates. These certificates allow for precise tracking of region-specific CFE generation on an hourly basis, addressing both energy consumption and emissions impact.

The alliance is dedicated to accelerating the transition towards decarbonization by creating transparent and easy-to-use market mechanisms. This will advance the production, sale, and consumption of CFE, enabling consumers to meet their clean energy goals with greater efficiency.

Blok-Z is proud to support this effort to drive new clean energy availability, reduce costs, and incentivize the development of new CFE resources. Together with our partners, we are committed to making significant strides towards a sustainable and carbon-free future.

How GC Marketplace Works

• The Alliance has come together to inform and support the design and development of a new GC exchange and management platform, developed by LevelTen Energy and ICE, the purpose of which is to:
  • Facilitate and expedite the transition toward decarbonization through reliable, transparent, and easy-to-use market mechanisms that will advance the production, sale and consumption of CFE;
  • Enable energy consumers to purchase CFE generated at specific, time- and location-based intervals as a means to meet their CFE matching or other granular goals;
  • Publish transparent, time- and location-based CFE price signals that incentivize how existing CFE is dispatched, and the deployment of new CFE resources that can respond to such signals;
  • Establish market mechanisms that will simplify, streamline, and reduce barriers to the purchase of CFE by all types of energy consumers, and that will enable the use of CFE on a round-the-clock basis by as many energy consumers as possible;
  • Ensure the use of transparent and verifiable transaction tools – including  integration with existing tracking system registries – to support and enhance the validity of corporate and other ESG-related claims about the purchase, retirement, and tracking of CFE. 
• Trading infrastructure for the GC exchange platform will be provided by ICE, owner of the New York Stock Exchange. Participants must either possess an account to trade on ICE directly or work through an intermediary with ICE access and who will execute trades on their behalf.
• The LevelTen/ICE GC exchange and management platform will be fully consistent with the principles outlined by nonprofit GC working groups, such as EnergyTag, and various regional REC registries, as relevant.
• The tool will initially launch with a focus on the US market. 
• The product is in development now with an estimated launch set for 2024.