Driving RSG Demand With Transactable and Trustworthy Data
Emerging registry technology is creating digital environmental attributes.
What Are Registries?
The differentiated or Responsibly Sourced Gas (RSG) market is rapidly expanding. Producers and buyers of this differentiated gas commodity want to understand the environmental footprint of the molecules they sell or purchase. This requires documentation, tracking, and book-and-claim capabilities.
Project Canary delivers auditable and verifiable environmental attributes for differentiated commodities such as RSG. Now, you have insight into if the methane intensity was measured, estimated, or quantified as well as the types of CEM sensors and/or enhanced leak detection devices used. These attributes are published to a registry that offers transparency to stakeholders.
How Are Registries Evolving In 2023?
Answer: Blockchain.
Blockchains—more broadly, regulated ledgers—are different from cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a recordkeeping technology that relies on accurate and trustworthy information to create an immutable record (meaning it can’t be changed). Energy registries need this.
The new blockchain-powered registries — “Registry 2.0” — upload verifiable environmental attributes provided by Project Canary and other reputable environmental data providers directly onto the blockchain. Those attributes include methane intensities and how they are calculated, water use, and other important differentiators (see EarnDLT, and Xpansiv).
Registry 2.0 solutions offer advantages compared to Registry 1.0 options. 2.0 supports the separation of the physical gas molecules from their environmental data so that they can be distributed and traded separately. This means that the buyer of the natural gas can optionally purchase the claims to environmental attributes to differentiate their offering and achieve environmental goals. This optionality helps to grow the overall market, incentivizing more energy producers to produce RSG by rewarding and documenting their efforts to improve their environmental impact.
Registry 2.0 gives buyers greater confidence in the accuracy of the data that is the basis for differentiating gas. The data is stored on the blockchain, and real-time marketplaces are enhanced. Transferring molecule ownership from seller to buyer is entirely digital and automatic. Finally, environmental attributes traded on a “Registry 2.0” are automatically retired after use, which avoids double counting.
