Lacs Médocains Solar Park

Hourtin, Gironde

France

Solar

Technical details

With its 41-megawatt capacity, the Lacs Médocains Solar Park can power up to 20,000 French homes. The renewable energy developer BayWa r.e., based in Munich, Germany, built the park in 2017. It’s just outside the town of Hourtin, between the Bordeaux wine region and the Bay of Biscay in southwestern France.

The site had been forestland before storms damaged it in 1999. To compensate for taking out the remaining trees, the developer planted more than 180 acres of trees elsewhere as a reforestation project. The solar park includes a nature trail with information about the power plant and solar energy as well as plants and animals found in the area.

Cloverly has purchased 2,500 guarantees of origin for energy the park produced in March and April 2019. A guarantee of origin is a European tracking instrument certifying that 1 megawatt-hour of electricity has been produced from a renewable source and delivered to the electric grid. (Its US equivalent is a Renewable Energy Credit.) Buying guarantees of origin helps fund solar farms and other renewable-energy projects.

For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

 

Percent Utilized

59.553%

Total Capacity

41 megawatts

Instrument Type

Renewable Energy Certificate

Registry Name

 

McCloud River Conservation Based Forest Management Project

Mount Shasta, California

United States

Improved Forest Management

Technical details

Glaciers and snowpack from Mount Shasta feed the gorgeous McCloud River, a 77-mile stream that tumbles over boulders and meanders through rugged conifer forests at the southern end of the Cascades Range. It’s a premier wild trout fishery and features several waterfalls. Whitewater rafters and kayakers love to run the miles of class III rapids on the Upper McCloud, with bonus glimpses of the Bavarian-style buildings at Wyntoon, a private estate that was once the retreat of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The offset project involves 2 forest tracts near the river, totaling 9,200 acres. Campbell Global of Portland, Oregon, partnered with Pacific Forest Trust and the environmental consultant Bluesource to create the project. Campbell Global, which specializes in sustainable timberland management, manages the tracts for the owner, Pondosa Forest, LLC, which ultimately receives the carbon offset income.

Timber harvesting will continue, but carefully. Permanent conservation easements granted to Pacific Forest Trust require that the timber stock increase, that the tracts never be subdivided or developed, and that the forest be restored to its natural state of mixed native conifers in a variety of densities and heights, with a wide range of tree ages and no nonnative species. The anticipated increase in the number of larger, more mature trees will support a greater variety of wildlife. Stream buffers wider than the state requires will ensure that the McCloud river will remain wild, scenic, and beloved by both trout and people.

Cloverly buys offsets that meet accepted standards for being real, measurable, verifiable, permanent, and additional. "Additional" means that the carbon savings would not have happened without the offset project and that the project would not have happened unless it got certified to sell carbon offsets. The Climate Action Reserve oversees verification of the McCloud River project. You can find verification documents at https://thereserve2.apx.com/mymodule/reg/TabDocuments.asp?r=111&ad=Prpt&act=update&type=PRO&aProj=pub&tablename=doc&id1=429.

Projects can produce many offsets during a year. So a project may appear more than once in the Cloverly portfolio. You can tell the year of the offset by the date in the web address for each project: "12-months-starting-[month]-[year]." For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

 

El Bayo Onshore Wind Project

Pedrola, Zaragoza

Spain

Wind

Technical details

Three and a half hours west of Barcelona by car, a double row of wind turbines runs along a low, flat hill among agricultural fields. El Bayo Wind Farm opened in 2003 during a boom time for wind energy in Spain. Its 60 towers, built in two phases of 30 each, use Spanish-made turbines and have a total nameplate capacity of 49.5 megawatts.

Spain's renewable-energy building spree paid off. In 2020, the country derived 21.9% of its electricity from wind power.

The El Bayo project produces guarantees of origin, the European version of the US Renewable Energy Credits. Each GO represents 1 megawatt-hour of renewable electricity delivered to the grid. The GOs in the Cloverly portfolio are from 2018.

For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

 

Soma III Wind Farm

Soma, Manisa

Turkey

Wind

Technical details

The mountainous terrain of Turkey's Manisa Province lends itself perfectly to wind power. In general, the higher the altitude, the stronger and more reliable the wind. The town of Soma, 45 miles east of the Aegean Sea in northwestern Turkey, sits at an elevation of 528 feet, with higher peaks around it. Wind turbines stand atop many of those peaks. The Soma Wind Farm, built in four (so far) phases, encompasses 181 turbines with a total capacity of 288 megawatts.

Soma III (50 turbines, 100 MW) came online in 2015. Turkey currently gets 34% of its electricity from plants powered by imported fuels. Its potential wind resources are among the best in Eurasia, so wind power has become an important part of its plan for energy independence. Soma III generates about 280 megawatt-hours of power each year. That avoids the emission of about 167,000 metric tons (184,086 US tons) of carbon dioxide equivalents that would have come from generating that amount of power by conventional means.

The emission credits representing that avoided carbon impact are called verified emission reductions. Each VER represents the avoidance of 1 metric ton (2,205 pounds) of carbon dioxide emissions.

Cloverly buys offsets that meet accepted standards for being real, measurable, verifiable, permanent, and additional. "Additional" means that the carbon savings would not have happened without the offset project and that the project would not have happened unless it got certified to sell carbon offsets. Gold Standard oversees verification of the Soma III Wind Farm. You can find verification documents at https://impact.sustain-cert.com/public_projects/571.

Projects can produce many offsets during a year. So a project may appear more than once in the Cloverly portfolio. You can tell the year of the offset by the date in the web address for each project: "12-months-starting-[month]-[year]." For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

Percent Utilized

100.000%

Total Capacity

 

Toronto School District Energy Efficiency

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

Energy Efficiency

Technical details

Starting in 2000, the Toronto District School Board began updating lighting fixtures and the control systems that handle heating, lighting, and ventilation. The replacement units consume less electricity, and the efficiency of the new control systems reduces the amount of fossil fuel used for heating. The board further reduced energy consumption by improving school roofs so they’re much better at insulating. This is Canada’s largest school district, encompassing 583 schools, so the overall energy savings are substantial.

They’re also expensive, so the district has done the project gradually, retrofitting a few dozen buildings each year. To help cover the costs, the district has sold carbon offsets (also known as carbon credits). The offsets represent emissions avoided by reducing the use of fossil fuel for heating and electricity generation. During 2015, the district created 17,600 offsets, representing 17,600 metric tons (19,401 US tons) of carbon dioxide or equivalent greenhouse gases kept out of the atmosphere. Cloverly has purchased 430 of those offsets.

Cloverly buys offsets that meet accepted standards for being real, measurable, verifiable, permanent, and additional. "Additional" means that the carbon savings would not have happened without the offset project and that the project would not have happened unless it got certified to sell carbon offsets. CSA oversees verification of the Toronto District School Board project. You can find verification documents at https://www.csaregistries.ca/cleanprojects/masterprojectdetails_e.cfm?pid=766.

Projects can produce many offsets during a year. So a project may appear more than once in the Cloverly portfolio. You can tell the year of the offset by the date in the web address for each project: "[number]-months-starting-[month]-[year]." For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

Percent Utilized

99.999%

 

Bear Creek Watershed Forest Carbon Project

Astoria, Oregon

United States

Improved Forest Management

Technical details

This project provides a textbook example of how carbon offsets work. The picturesque city of Astoria, Oregon, lies at the mouth of the Columbia River. The city owns Bear Creek Watershed Forest—3,700 acres full of Douglas firs, western red cedars, and western hemlocks about 10 miles southeast of town. Astoria uses the forest as a source of drinking water and of revenue from annual logging. In 2015, the city came to an agreement with The Climate Trust, a nonprofit organization that finances carbon mitigation projects. The city committed to significantly reduce its timber harvest. In return, the trust bought 245,000 carbon credits, also known as carbon offsets.

A carbon offset represents the reduction of 1 metric ton (2,205 pounds) of carbon dioxide emissions. The Bear Creek Watershed Forest Carbon Project accomplishes that by absorbing (sequestering) CO2 from the atmosphere. Having more trees in the forest because of reduced harvesting means that the forest sequesters more carbon. The American Carbon Registry verification agency found that during the first year of improved management, the project actually exceeded the offsets goal, sequestering 262,154 metric tons of carbon above what the forest would have stored under its old management plan. (You can find verification documents at https://acr2.apx.com/mymodule/reg/TabDocuments.asp?r=111&ad=Prpt&act=update&type=PRO&aProj=pub&tablename=doc&id1=272.)

Ken Cook, Astoria's public works manager at the time of the sale, said the city couldn't have afforded to reduce timber harvesting without the offsets. "In the absence of carbon revenue," he said, "the project activity of limiting timber harvest could not be sustained, as it is important that city assets, like the Bear Creek Watershed, generate long-term sustainable revenue for the benefit of its citizens."

Cloverly buys offsets that meet accepted standards for being real, measurable, verifiable, permanent, and additional. "Additional" means that—as is the case with the Bear Creek Watershed Project—the carbon savings would not have happened without the offset project and the project would not have happened unless it got certified to sell carbon offsets.

Projects can produce many offsets during a year. So a project may appear more than once in the Cloverly portfolio. You can tell the year of the offset by the date in the web address for each project: "12-months-starting-[month]-[year]." For a list of all the projects in our portfolio and an interactive map, see https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets. Learn more about Cloverly at https://cloverly.com.

Percent Utilized

100.000%