What is an SREC, exactly?
A Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) is a tradeable certificate you earn for every megawatt-hour (1,000 kWh) your system produces. Pennsylvania utilities must source some electricity from solar—SRECs prove compliance. System owners earn them; utilities and businesses buy them. It's a separate market from your utility account.
The SREC market exists because of Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS) Act — Act 213 of 2004. This law requires Pennsylvania suppliers to source a growing percentage of power from renewables, with a set-aside for solar. SRECs make the solar requirement trackable, verifiable, and tradeable.
SRECs are completely different from net metering. Both work at the same time but operate separately. See the comparison below.
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 means navigating registration, tracking production, and finding buyers. Most homeowners don't have the time or contacts—so certificates go unclaimed and money gets left on the table. Aggregation solves this.
Enroll Your System
We register your system with the PA 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
We aggregate your SRECs with other owners and sell them to maximize value—no effort required 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 need to be a HelloSun customer to use our SREC service. If you have solar in Pennsylvania, we can help you collect those certificates. Most existing system owners don't know about this free money and never claim it.
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 unclaimed.
Whether you're new to HelloSun or have an existing system, we can walk you through enrollment and show you what you're earning.