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, 2013

Fee Schedule:

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

• Micro-Generator Project Account: $100/year
  This type of Account can register a total of up to 100 kW in nameplate capacity of renewable projects and have certificates issued to it for its projects. A Micro-Generator Project Account can hold, transfer (only outgoing transfers), withdraw and retire certificates. A Micro-Generator Project Account cannot receive transfers from other parties.

• Small Generator Project Account: $250/year
  This type of Account can register a total of up to 1.5 MW in nameplate capacity of renewable projects and have certificates issued to it for its projects. A Small Generator Project Account can hold, transfer (only outgoing transfers), withdraw and retire certificates. A Small Generator Project Account cannot receive transfers from other parties.

• 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-2-

• 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 a per-REC Issuance Fee for up to the first one million (1,000,000) RECs issued in the Registry each calendar year by a given generator registered in its 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
- $0.015/REC Retired

M-RETS® permits RECs to be exported to MIRECS, NAR and NC-RETS. A full list of tracking systems that facilitate inter-registry transfers can be accessed here. The procedure to export RECs is available in Section 15.2 of the M-RETS® Operating Procedures. If you have questions about exporting RECs from your account, please contact the M-RETS Administrator - Bryan Gower: mrets(at)apx.com

The process and policies for permitting REC imports from other tracking systems is a work in progress. During this period of policy development, REC imports into M-RETS® is not yet permitted. If you would like to find out about the M-RETS® board of directors efforts to enable imports, please contact M-RETS® Executive Director - Amy Fredregill: amy(at)mrets.org