Renewable energy certificates
Reach your sustainability goals
Northpower offers Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to businesses wanting to support New Zealand-owned renewable generation and secure credible renewable electricity. Beyond generating clean energy, our solar and hydropower projects contribute to the local community and protect the surrounding environment.
Providing a traceable way to support renewable electricity generation, RECs strengthen sustainability reporting, and connect your renewable electricity claim to Northpower’s renewable energy assets.
Our RECs are generated in Northland from solar and hydro assets. They are community-owned, with value flowing back to our communities, and provide a credible, locally grounded renewable energy solution.
Report your renewable energy with confidence
Our RECs provide businesses with a clear, trusted way to demonstrate your renewable electricity use and support sustainability.
Enabling confident reporting of renewable energy use, our RECs support global standards such as:
- RE100: a global initiative where organisations commit to using 100% renewable electricity
- GHG Protocol Scope 2: the standard for reporting emissions from purchased electricity
- SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative): a framework for setting emissions reduction targets aligned with climate science
- Independent NZ-based certifiers (for example, Toitū): provide verification and assurance that your renewable energy claims and emissions reporting are credible and compliant.
Our offer
We offer Renewable Energy Certificates from Te Puna Mauri ō Omaru solar farm and Wairua Hydro Power Station. In the last production year (PY26), Northpower offered over 37,000 Renewable Energy Certificates.
We’ll be increasing our supply of Renewable Energy Certificates to over 45,000 in PY27 as we add Puna Komaru solar farm to our renewable energy portfolio in December 2026.
Access RECs through:
- coupled energy and certificates
- certificates only
- power purchase agreement: a longer-term opportunity to source power and certificates directly from a high-quality renewable energy asset.
FAQs
A certificate that represents the renewable attributes of 1 MWh of verified renewable electricity generation.
For every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity we generate from our solar and hydro stations, we create a REC or New Zealand Energy Certificate (NZ‑EC). These certificates are sold to make it easy for companies to show that your electricity use is backed by renewable energy.
Electricity from all generation sources mixes together on the grid, so it is not possible to physically trace specific electrons to a business site. NZ-ECs solve this by tracking the renewable attributes of electricity separately and assigning them clearly to the buyer. This process is administered by BraveTrace.
These certificates can help you report your renewable energy use with confidence, including supporting recognised standards such as RE100, GHG Protocol Scope 2, SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative), and Independent NZ-based certifiers.
No. Electricity from all sources mixes on the grid. RECs track and allocate the renewable attributes separately.
They can support market-based Scope 2 reporting by providing evidence that a company’s electricity use has been matched with verified renewable generation.
Yes, depending on availability. Certificates can be purchased either together or separately from your electricity supply.
Northpower’s renewable generation is registered through the New Zealand Energy Certificate System, operated by BraveTrace.
With 90 years of electricity industry experience, Northpower has a reputation for excellence and innovation as we shift to a low-carbon future for the Whangārei and Kaipara communities.
- 100% community ownership
- Profit that stays local in Northland, New Zealand
- New renewable infrastructure
- We build, own, and operate local renewable projects to create long-term opportunities aligned with sustainability and community ownership goals.
- Our Northpower RECs support renewable generation, directing value back into community-owned renewable energy assets and regional outcomes.
Our renewable energy assets
Te Puna Mauri ō Omaru
New Zealand’s first large scale community built, owned and operated solar farm.
✔ New 30 hectare solar farm in Ruawai
Powering 4,000 Northland homes annually.
✔ RE100 compliant
New renewable energy asset commissioned in 2024.
✔ Community-led
Established in collaboration with local hapu Te Uri o Hau.
✔ Economic impact
$5m spent locally during the build, 50+ Northlanders gaining new skills and jobs, including 17 previously unemployed.
✔ Education and engagement
Building renewable awareness by hosting local schools and the community at the solar farm.
✔ Leading technology
First to use world-leading Nextracker’s solar tracking system technology in Aotearoa, alongside other innovations, to boost energy yield by up to 30%.
Puna Komaru
Puna Komaru marks the next step in Northpower’s solar expansion, increasing renewable capacity and bringing more community-owned energy to market from 2027.
We are very excited to share that Puna Komaru solar farm will go live in December 2026, enabling us to bring further high-quality RECs to market from PY27 onwards.
Wairua Hydro Power Station
Northpower has been operating Wairua Hydro Power Station on Wairua River since 1993 and we take our kaitiaki role very seriously.
✔ Strong environmental and cultural protection
Carried out in partnership with local hapu Te Parawhau ki Korokota.
✔ Active protection of taonga
Over 1,000 eels and 200 elvers safely relocated during canal maintenance in March 2026. Ongoing fish management practices in place.
✔ Restoring native plants
Native planting programmes underway in collaboration with local farmers and hapu.
✔ Future-proofed upgrade
$28m upgrade to double supply and lift environmental protections with state of the art technology (including eel-exclusion systems).
✔ RE100 compliance status
Investigating RE100 eligibility following substantial upgrade.
More information
Northpower’s renewable energy is registered with the New Zealand Energy Certificate System, operated by BraveTrace. This helps ensure renewable electricity claims are independently traceable, reliable and verifiable.
More information is available here:
