Frequently Asked Questions

The Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) tracks renewable energy generation and assists in verifying compliance with mandatory or voluntary State/Provincial Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and objectives. M-RETS is an important tool to keep track of all relevant information about renewable energy produced and delivered in the region. Currently the states & provinces participating are: Illinois, Iowa, Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

M-RETS creates a renewable energy certificate for every MWh of renewable energy produced in the region, tracks the life cycle of each renewable certificate created, and ensures against any double-counting or double-use of each certificate.  To learn more see About M-RETS.

There is no restriction to who may open an account in M-RETS. However, only those renewable generators that are located in the M-RETS footprint (or if located outside of the M-RETS footprint, are either owned by a participating utility or have a contract with a participating utility to deliver renewable energy into the M-RETS footprint) may be registered to an
M-RETS Account and subsequently have certificates created. A generating unit is considered "renewable" if the energy generated is considered renewable by any of the seven states or provinces included in the M-RETS footprint.

M-RETS is an easy to use, Web-based system that creates, verifies, manages and enables trading for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The system provides a full suite of capabilities to create unique certificates, track serial numbers, track certificates in company accounts, enable transfers and transactions, track certificate retirement, and enable compliance reporting with a full audit trail.

See the Registration section.

Feel free to fill out an inquiry form on the contact us page.

The reports available on the registry public reports page. Sign-up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the availability of any new reports and more.

Contact the respective State Agencies and/or comissions in each participating State/Province and review their eligibility requirements. Information on each State/Provincial programs and their respective contacts can be found under the Useful Links page.

You can find the entire fee structure in the Terms of Use.

M-RETS Fees
Effective January 1, 2011

Subscription Fee: Subscriber shall pay an annual Subscription Fee, payable at the time that it registers in the Registry and in January of each subsequent calendar year. The Subscription Fee will be based upon type of Account maintained by Subscriber.

• Project Account: $500/year
  This type of Account can register renewable projects and have certificates issued to it for its projects. A Project Account can hold, transfer (only outgoing transfers), withdraw and retire certificates. A Project Account cannot receive transfers from other parties.

• General Account: $2000/year
  This type of Account can hold, transfer (outgoing and incoming), and retire credits as well as register and maintain projects and have credits issued to it for its projects. This account type is the only type of Account that can retire certificates for compliance with any of the State RPS programs utilizing MRETS.

• Retail Purchaser Account: $1000/year
  This type of Account is for retail purchasers of credits. A Retail Purchaser Account can hold, accept incoming transfers, and retire credits. They can also register and maintain projects that are under 1MW in capacity and have credits issued in their Account. Retail Purchaser Account cannot make outgoing transfers.

Issuance Fee: An Account Holder shall pay an Issuance Fee for each REC issued in the Registry for a project registered in it's Account.
- $0.005/REC issued

Retirement Fee: An Account Holder shall pay a Retirement Fee for each REC retired in an Account Holder's sub-account in the Registry.
- $0.03/REC Retired

The fee structure as posted in the Terms of Use states that issuance and retirement fees are based on issuance/retirement volumes. Issuance (Current Period or Adjustment) and retirement activity is billable in the year the activity occurs, regardless of the month or year of certificate vintage.