What is an SREC, exactly?
A Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) is a tradeable certificate you earn for every megawatt-hour (1,000 kWh) of solar energy your system produces. Pennsylvania utilities are required by law to source a portion of their electricity from solar energy — and SRECs are how they prove compliance. Solar system owners earn the certificates; utilities and businesses buy them. It's a market that runs entirely parallel to your electric utility account.
The SREC market exists because of Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS) Act — Act 213 of 2004. That legislation requires Pennsylvania electricity suppliers to source a growing percentage of their power from renewable and alternative energy sources, with a dedicated carve-out specifically for solar. SRECs are the compliance mechanism — a way to make the solar requirement trackable, verifiable, and tradeable across the market.
This is a fundamentally different benefit from net metering. The two programs work simultaneously, but they operate through completely separate channels. The comparison below explains the distinction.
Solar Renewable Energy Certificates
- Earned per megawatt-hour (1,000 kWh) of production
- Sold in a separate certificate market
- Buyers are utilities & businesses meeting legal requirements
- Paid out as cash, independent of your utility bill
- Value fluctuates with market conditions
Banked Energy Credits
- Earned per kilowatt-hour of excess solar sent to the grid
- Credited directly on your utility bill (1:1 in Pennsylvania)
- Rolls forward month to month as "banked energy"
- Reduces what you owe your electric utility
- Annual surplus paid out at true-up in May
How SREC aggregation works
Selling SRECs on your own requires navigating a registration process, tracking production, and finding buyers in a specialized market. Most homeowners don't have the time or contacts to do this efficiently — which means certificates go unclaimed and money is left on the table. That's where aggregation comes in.
Enroll Your System
We register your system with the Pennsylvania SREC market and set up production tracking through your monitoring platform.
Earn Certificates
For every 1,000 kWh your system produces, one SREC is issued to your account. Production is tracked and verified automatically.
We Handle the Market
HelloSun aggregates your SRECs with other system owners and sells them into the market — maximizing value without requiring anything from you.
You Get Paid
Proceeds are distributed to participating system owners on a regular basis. Your system keeps producing; you keep earning.
Available to any Pennsylvania solar owner
You don't have to be a HelloSun installation customer to use our SREC aggregation service. If you have a solar system in Pennsylvania that is producing energy, we can help you put those certificates to work. Most existing system owners are leaving real money unclaimed simply because no one told them it was there.
System Enrollment & Registration
We handle the paperwork to get your system registered in the PA SREC market and connected to your production data.
Production Tracking
We monitor your system's output and ensure every megawatt-hour of production is accurately captured and converted to certificates.
Market Aggregation & Sale
Your certificates are pooled with other PA system owners and sold through established market channels at competitive rates.
Proceeds Distribution
Earnings are distributed to participating owners on a regular schedule — straightforward, transparent, no surprises.
Don't leave your SRECs on the table.
Whether you're a new HelloSun customer or have an existing system installed by someone else, we'd be glad to walk you through enrollment and what your system could be earning.