THE CFE ENERGY STANDARD
A rulebook for what "carbon-free" is allowed to mean.
Anyone can print "100% renewable" on an annual report. CFE Energy's standard exists so that claim can be checked, hour by hour, against a real meter reading and a real unit of clean generation. This page explains how the methodology works and where it's headed.
WHY WE BUILT IT
A methodology, not a marketing claim
Most clean-energy claims today rest on certificates cancelled once a year, against a market-wide total. That leaves enormous room for a claim to be technically true and practically meaningless — clean at the annual level, dirty at 9pm on a Tuesday.
The CFE Energy Standard sets out exactly how consumption and generation have to line up — in time, in location, and in the attributes of the generating asset — before an hour of electricity can be called matched. It's the methodology our own matching engine runs on, and the basis on which we intend to become a signatory to the UN 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact.
Where this is headed
| Governments | US federal goal: 50% 24/7 carbon-free electricity for federal operations by 2030 |
|---|---|
| EU policy | 2023 renewable energy directive (RED III) opens the door to hourly-tracked guarantees of origin |
| Cities | 24/7 carbon-free energy programmes piloted in Paris, London and Copenhagen |
| Corporates | Google, Microsoft and other large buyers have adopted 24/7 CFE procurement targets |
| Hydrogen | EU rules for renewable hydrogen point toward hourly, location-matched supply |
THE INSTRUMENT
CFE Certificates, explained
A CFE Certificate works like a traditional renewable energy certificate — issued for a unit of generation, cancelled to back a consumption claim — with one difference that changes everything downstream: the time window is an hour or less, instead of a year.
That short window is what makes hour-by-hour matching possible. Each certificate also carries the production location, so a claim can be checked for whether that generation could actually reach the point of consumption — not just added up across an entire market.
| Time resolution | 1 hour or less, sub-hourly where source data supports it |
|---|---|
| Carries | Generation time, location, technology, commissioning date |
| Use | Matching against consumption in time and location |
| Relationship to RECs / GOs | Builds on existing certificate markets rather than replacing them |
| Issuance | Direct from metered and settlement data, audited against our published methodology |
HOW WE PLUG IN
Three ways we bring hourly certification to a market
Certificate infrastructure looks different in every region. Our platform adapts to what already exists rather than asking a market to change first.
Direct certification
Where local rules allow it, we issue hourly certificates directly from metering and generation data, making them the primary instrument a buyer holds.
Registry partnership
We layer hourly certification on top of an existing national certificate registry, reconciled so the same generation is never claimed twice across both systems.
Supplier-enabled issuance
We work directly with energy suppliers to convert their metering and settlement data into hourly certificates — suited to markets where retail suppliers hold the richest data.
THE RULEBOOK
The CFE Energy Matching Framework: roles and criteria
The framework defines who does what in turning a pile of certificates into a defensible claim, and what has to line up for a match to count.
Certifier
Administers certificates across their lifetime, from issuance to cancellation.
Match Engine
Runs the matching logic that pairs consumption data with certificate cancellations — this is the role CFE Energy's platform performs.
Verifier
Independently checks that a matching claim was performed correctly against the underlying data.
Buyer / Supplier
Makes the resulting claim — for example, "80% of 2026 consumption matched hourly, within region."
Temporal matching
Consumption and generation are compared within a fixed interval — an hour by default, tightening to sub-hourly where source data supports it. A certificate generated at 2pm cannot cover consumption at 9pm.
Geographic matching
Certificates must originate from a source that can physically reach the consumption point — typically the same grid region or a configurable deliverability radius, so a claim reflects what the local grid could actually carry.
Attribute matching
Optional filters — technology type, commissioning date, additionality criteria — let a buyer restrict matches to, say, generation sources under three years old, in line with the product they've committed to.
Cancellation & claim record
Matched certificates are cancelled against the consumption record, producing a permanent, one-time-use claim that an outside verifier can check independently.
SIDE BY SIDE
Annual matching vs. hourly matching
| Annual certificate matching | CFE Energy hourly matching | |
| Time window | Calendar year | 1 hour or less |
| Geographic check | Often market-wide | Grid region / deliverability radius |
| What a 100% claim shows | Annual generation ≥ annual consumption | Clean supply was available in the same hour, in a deliverable location |
| Investment signal | Rewards any clean MWh, any time | Rewards generation and storage exactly when demand needs it |
| Reporting alignment | Current GHG Protocol Scope 2 market-based method | UN 24/7 CFE Compact, EU RED III, hydrogen rules; a likely future GHG Protocol update |
A standard is only useful once it's running on real data.
CFE Energy exists to be that implementation layer — so your team can focus on procurement decisions, not on interpreting a methodology.