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  1. Home
  2. Green Power Markets
  3. Learn about Green Power Market
  4. Energy Market Drivers

Market Drivers

Related Resources

  • “The need for better insight into the voluntary renewable energy markets” (pdf)  O5/2023
    This paper by NREL paper provides an overview of the US voluntary green power market and the role of voluntary procurement in decarbonization policy.
  • Impacts of Voluntary Renewable Energy Demand on Deployment: A Market-Based Approach (pdf) (1.83 MB)

Three broad sources drive demand for renewable electricity: policy, voluntary action, and economics.

Certain policies grow demand for renewable electricity by increasing the percentage of renewable electricity that electric service providers, like utilities, must provide in some states. This drives renewable electricity growth by increasing demand among providers of electricity.

Voluntary purchasing also drives renewable electricity growth by increasing demand among electricity customers choosing renewable resources for their environmental, economic, and social benefits.

Finally, the low cost of renewable resources is an ever-increasing driver of renewable electricity growth. In the United States, wind and solar represent many of the lowest-cost new power generation resources. In many cases, building a new wind or solar facility may even cost less than running an already-existing facility that generates power using other resources.

To learn more about the contributions of these market drivers to renewable electricity growth, visit the Regulatory vs Voluntary Market Drivers page.

What can I do to help to transform the market to cleaner power generation resources?

Electricity consumers can play a significant role in transforming the power sector by creating demand for renewable electricity. This not only increases the proportion of total electricity being generated from clean, renewable resources, but also helps to scale the market for these technologies and products, helping to bring per-unit costs down for future renewable projects.

GPM Voluntary Market in Context graph
NREL: Status and Trends in the Voluntary Market (2022 Data)

Many product options are available. In general, different options are available to residential, small organizational, and large organizational electricity consumers.

Buying Renewable Electricity: Residential Customers

  • Utility Green Pricing Options
  • Retail Green Electricity Products
  • Community Choice Aggregation
  • Self-Supply
  • Shared Renewables – aka Community Solar

Buying Renewable Electricity: Small Organizations

In addition to the above product options available to residential customers, small businesses, academic institutions, and other small organizations may also be able to increase renewable electricity demand through the following product options.

  • Retail RECs

Buying Renewable Electricity: Large Organizations

Large commercial or institutional consumers can drive renewable electricity through all the purchasing options described above. In addition, they also may be able to leverage the following options:

  • Utility Green Tariffs
  • Physical Power Purchase Agreements
  • Financial Power Purchase Agreements

Green Power Markets

  • Learn about Green Power Market
    • History of Voluntary Markets
      • U.S. Renewable Electricity Market
      • International Green Power Markets
    • U.S. Electricity Grid & Markets
      • U.S. Grid Regions
      • Power Market Structure
      • Energy Attribute Tracking Systems
    • Energy Market Drivers
      • Market Drivers
      • Contributions of Policies & Consumer Choice Drivers
      • Market Drivers Interactions
    • Renewable Energy Market Principles
      • Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs)
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      • Environmental Claims
      • Regulatory Surplus
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    • Summary of Inflation Reduction Act
  • Act
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      • What Is Green Power?
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Green Power Markets Contact US Form
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Last updated on May 20, 2025
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