ROC

I am sure there are people on the forum who have the exact details and that they will jump in...

ROCs are short for Renewables Obligation Certificates.

The UK Government has obligated the UK electricity supply industry to supply a certain amount of electricity generated from renewable means by a set time. I think, but I am not certain, that something like 10% of ALL UK electricity is supposed to be supplied by renewable means by the end of 2007. Recently the Government published their thoughts that could end up in a white paper with much more aggresive renewables obligation by 2010 - 2015.

If you are a generator of electricity by renewable means (which means, really anything from non-fossil fuels including burning chicken sausage in East Anglia, to geothermal, methane gas generation and burning wood waste at saw mills, hydro, wind, etc) you also generate one ROC for each megawatt of electricity produced.

You do not have to sell the electricity to an electricity supplier but you can if you want to (and they want to buy it). You can also sell your ROCs to whoever may want to buy them.

Don't forget the Government has obligated electricity supply industries to supply a certain amount of electricity by renewable means. They can either do this by actually doing it themselves, or buying ROCs equivalent to the value of the renewable power they are required to deliver (with 1 ROC = 1 megawatt).

There is - theoretically - a "market" for ROCs where organisations bid for them. The price, therefore, goes up and down relative to demand - so there is no fixed price. the current prices I have heard of are around £55 - £60 per ROC.

Whilst this sounds great for people generating power from renewable sources, actually obtaining a ROC certificate is quite involved, requiring a fair amount of form filling and record keeping. Many small generators (like those using Navitron kit) regard the form filling and hassle factor greater than the returns, so do not bother.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Ian