What are Guarantees of Origin?
In Europe, Guarantees of Origin' or 'GOs' are used to prove the origin of the electricity consumed. Many organizations want to use 100% renewable energy, but it is not possible to channel electrons from the producer to the consumer on the network. Therefore, a separate document is needed that grants confidence in the origin of electricity.
Who gets Guarantees of Origin?
Renewable energy producers are entitled to receive Guarantees of Origin for each megawatt-hour (MWh) sold on the grid. After successful completion of the registration process, Guarantees of Origin will be credited to the manufacturer's account automatically every month.
In the countries where Soldera operates, the following organizations are responsible for issuing GOs:
- Estonia - Elering
- Latvia - AST
- Lithuania - Litgrid
There are various limitations placed on GO issuance depending on country. In many cases, certain subsidies or other support schemes might limit the producer from owning GOs.
What to do with Guarantees of Origin?
Guarantees of Origin can be used to ensure the origin of electricity. Manufacturers have to find buyers for them themselves, because there is no public exchange for this.
Guarantees of Origin must be regularly managed because they cannot be traded after 12 months. Depending on country they may become completely invalid in either 12 or 18 months.
What are Guarantees of Origin worth?
There is no large public liquid market for Guarantees of Origin, and almost all transactions take place through private negotiations. It is therefore difficult to know exactly what value Guarantees of Origin could have at any given point in time. The opacity of the market means that often different people have very different perceptions of what Guarantees of Origin might be worth at the moment.
Historically, the highest selling prices have reached up to €8/MWh, but recently the price has been very volatile. No one can predict prices in advance, so it makes sense to sell as frequently as possible. This will help avoid a situation where Guarantees of Origin remain unsold and expire. We do everything we can to ensure a favorable price for our members.
Selling GOs = Selling Electricity?
No, these are different processes. Often, contracts for the sale of electricity do not contain conditions for Guarantees of Origin. Electricity and Guarantees of Origin produced by a production facility are usually traded separately because they are not directly related. The difference is due to the fact that it is not possible to target specific electrons for their intended purpose. Guarantees of Origin exist in parallel on the electricity market to ensure that renewable energy consumption does not exceed actual production.
Soldera does not buy or sell electricity, and our agreements do not place any restrictions on who buys and sells your electricity. We focus solely on Guarantees of Origin, providing you with a simple and automatic way to manage and sell them.
What does Soldera do?
We turn Guarantees of Origin into a passive source of income.
We help renewable energy producers of all sizes save their valuable time by automating registration, administration and sales.
Once you join us everything works automatically and we try to keep your communication channels clear.
How much does Soldera cost?
We charge by a simple principle: Soldera only makes money when you make money.
We take a percentage commission based on the sales of your Guarantees of Origin. This helps align the interests of all parties to find the best price. The exact fee depends on the total capacity of the member's production facilities at all of their enterprises. The higher the capacity, the lower our fees. Power is based on the power of the inverter.
The specific comission fee also depends on the country, so check the local page for specifics.
What are the terms of sale?
You can read more about our trading procedure on our trading procedure page. If you have any further questions about how trades are done, please contact us using the quote bubble in the lower right corner.
Important highlights from the procedure includes the facts that Soldera undertakes to accept quotes from several parties, including from abroad, to record quotes for transparency and to always select the quote with the best conditions for members.
How do tenders work?
Soldera aggregates GOs from multiple members into larger sales transactions, combining our collective volume to achieve stronger market positioning and better prices. We conduct regular sales using smart strategies and timing that maximizes transaction frequency. To facilitate this process, we transfer your GOs to our registry account, where our software handles everything automatically - you never need to negotiate with buyers or manage transfers yourself.
Before each sale, Soldera obtains price quotes from our wide network of international buyers, ensuring competitive pricing through our market relationships. We select the best price offered and complete the sale on behalf of all participating members. Our automated system handles all the complexity while maintaining transparency in the pricing process.
Within 5 days of receiving payment from the buyer, we'll notify you of the transaction details by email, including your portion of the proceeds after deducting our fee and transaction costs (most commonly registry export fees). You can then request your payout with one click through the Soldera Platform - if you don't wish to issue an invoice immediately, you may do so later at any time. Soldera transfers the payment to your account within 7 days of receiving your invoice.
What are the risks?
If you are not already recieving Guarantees of Origin, but are entitled to them, you have nothing to lose. Worst case is that you spend a couple of minutes submitting documents to get a rejection letter from the registry operator.
There is always a theroetical possibility that you could have gotten a better price for your Guarantees of Origin on your own. For the sake of comparison, you should also consider the time costs involved with finding buyers, negotiating prices and executing the transactions. Our members generally value their time highly and do not consider this to be a significant risk.
How long does the contract last?
The Soldera membership contract lasts for one year and automatically renews every year. In order to withdraw from the contract, we must be informed two months before the end of the contract period. If Soldera should make changes to the terms of cooperation that reduce the rights of the member or increase the obligations of the member, the member has the right to withdraw from the contract on exceptional basis.
Guarantees of Origin can only be traded for the first 12 months after the moment of production, so it does not make sense to wait long.