GreenX Energy enables electricity consumers to purchase electricity generated from renewable sources (green electricity). Purchasing green electricity holds many benefits for corporations. It demonstrates to customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders, your commitment to minimize environmental impacts and to deliver on corporate social responsibility by supporting the development of labour intensive energy sources.

GreenX Energy proposes that customers convert a proportion of their electricity consumption to green electricity. This is achieved by purchasing Tradable Renewable Energy Certificates (TRECs) that support the generation of green power, and require no changes in your physical infrastructure or current supply arrangements.

GreenX Energy piloted the use of TRECs in South Africa by supplying over 800 MWh over green power using this system to the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, 2002.  It is also the first to supply TREC-based green power on a commercial basis both nationally and internationally.

We are here to assist you in mitigating your carbon footprint, be your needs personal commercial or industrial.  Not only do we assist your targets towards a carbon neutral future, we assist in assessing your energy needs and minimising your overall consumption requirement through energy efficiency measures.  This approach aims at a higher per-unit financial cost of electricity consumed, but fewer units purchases with the optimal end result being a minimal net increase in electricity costs - but with maximum, flexible carbon emissions reductions.

The benefits of TRECs

A number of important benefits arise from buying green power TRECs. Firstly, you will be generating visible and real benefits for South Africa as a responsible corporate citizen. These include:

Contributing to protecting the environment and to building awareness of the need to do so; and
Assisting in the development of a competitive green power industry in South Africa that will create more local jobs than conventional power stations, and which has the potential to access export markets.

Secondly, you will be able to benefit from this commitment by

• improving your triple bottom line reporting;
• enhancing your standing with customers, shareholders, employees and Government; and
• building your brand value.

In our view the contribution to brand value of buying green power far exceeds the cost associated with the purchase. Coupled with appropriate publicity, the immediate leverage should self-fund the TRECs purchase.

Green electricity

Green electricity is generated with technology that minimises the impact on the environment and which uses primary energy sources (fuel) that are renewable. GreenX electricity is generated from biomass wastes in the sugar, wood and paper industries; from micro-hydro plants; with further plans for wind and solar energy currently under investigation.

While it has a vast potential to produce renewable electricity, South Africa produces very little. Eskom’s surplus coal fired and nuclear generation capacity will shortly be fully utilised as older plant is retired and demand continues to grow. This creates an ideal opportunity to establish a market for green power and encourage new power generation to be based on renewable energy sources.

Green electricity production facilities also employ vastly more workers than is the case with conventional coal and nuclear plant. The development of a TREC market in South Africa holds great promise for increased job creation in the energy market, and for ultimately enabling South African TRECs to be exported to Europe and beyond.  This international trade is already underway, and we welcome you to join a growing carbon-aware customer base, in South Africa and abroad.