We are outraged and heartbroken by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and countless others. These events, associated with deep-rooted racism throughout the United States, are one of many injustices against the Black community that we will not stand for.

Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) continue to be disproportionately impacted by climate change. Their communities tend to be overwhelmingly impacted by poor air quality and carbon-intensive energy and transportation resources. As a company committed to doing our part to help clean energy become a reality, we recognize that this means we must be equally committed to addressing racial inequalities.

SRECTrade currently does not reflect the diversity it should. We acknowledge that our company would not be here without the environmental justice movement spurred forward by predominantly BIPOC communities fighting for environmental protection and equity. We are committed to using our platform to drive change and push ourselves to listen and learn more in order to tangibly exemplify our support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

To demonstrate our immediate support, we have donated $5,000 to The Greenlining Institute and $5,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

To implement internal change, we have formed a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee to continue contributing to open dialogue about racism. This committee will also help us address our human resources, vendor, and engagement practices. We are also reevaluating our recruiting and retention practices to promote hiring of diverse talent and ensuring our culture is inclusive and equitable.

Lastly, our DEI committee is evaluating long term projects to engage our employees to continually show our support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

This statement is a promise that as a company we will put in the hard work and time to hold ourselves more accountable in order to meaningfully contribute to and fight for racial justice.

We stand in solidarity with the Black community.

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting financial markets across the globe, we wanted to provide an update on the SREC markets and how this crisis could affect pricing and liquidity in the near-to-medium term.

On the supply side of the market, production of SRECs from existing systems should remain largely unaffected, since solar assets will continue to generate electricity at their typical rates. However, depending on the extent of the economic damage caused by COVID-19, build rates of new solar assets may see a decline during the current period. While the extent of this impact cannot be determined with certainty, it is likely that the market will see a slowdown of new solar asset build during this economic downturn, which will slightly decrease overall SREC production.

A larger question mark lies on the demand side of the equation, where the severity of the crisis’ impact on electricity load remains unknown. While residential electricity usage will likely increase as a result of more people working from home and spending time indoors, the commercial and industrial sectors will see a drop-off in electricity demand. In the PJM and Massachusetts markets, commercial and industrial electricity demand makes up approximately 62% of total load demand, significantly outweighing residential load demand. Depending on how long the economy remains shut down, we will likely see overall electricity load falter in the back-end of Q1 and at least the first half of Q2.

In states where the SREC market may be closer to relative equilibrium, in the prompt period, and sensitive to shifts in market fundamentals (i.e. solar build and electric load), such as New Jersey, Maryland, and Massachusetts, we may experience a near-to-medium term decrease in pricing. However, for those states, such as Washington D.C., where the market is currently under-supplied, the drop in load will likely be insufficient to shift the underlying balance in the market.

Another near term impact of this crisis may be a lack of liquidity. Natural buyers of SRECs may take a less active approach and wait until this crisis unfolds further to determine their demand for SRECs for the current compliance year. This would mean less liquidity in the markets and could result in fewer credit transactions.

It is important to understand that while a temporary drop in SREC demand is possible, if the crisis resolves in the next couple of months and economic activity goes back to normal, the effect on the SREC markets will be temporary and short lived.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the fallout from this virus on the economy, it is hard to determine the exact impacts this will have on the SREC markets in the medium-to-long term. In the short term, we may expect lower pricing and less liquidity, which will likely persist until the United States starts to round the corner with the COVID-19 virus. SRECTrade will keep its clients, partners, and constituents updated as we push through this unprecedented time.

Dear Valued Clients and Partners,

As concerns about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continue to rise, the health, safety, and well-being of our employees and clients remains paramount. In difficult times like these we need to prioritize supporting one another to weather the storm and ensure a successful return to our normal standards of well-being.

Our San Francisco, CA and Somerville, MA offices are closed, and we have transitioned all employees to work from home. Currently, our staff is healthy and safe. We are still operating normal business hours and providing the same high level of service that you have grown accustomed to. As of now, you should notice very little change in communication and response times.

Moving forward, we are encouraging all employees and clients to follow the guidance and recommendations of local, state, and federal officials. Together we can help speed up the return to normalcy.

Thank you for choosing SRECTrade to help enable your clean energy use and reduce carbon emissions. We will continue to do everything we can to support your clean energy investments and improve our environment.

Please do not hesitate to let the SRECTrade team know how we can help you in the coming weeks.

All the best,
Steven & the SRECTrade team

Steven Eisenberg
Chief Executive Officer
SRECTrade, Inc.