What are the benefits of having a certificate market?

Certificates could be non-transferable, but then they would need to be used as evidence for contractual purposes, which suggests contract tracking would be necessary if you wanted to find the consumer to whom energy had been supplied. It is extremely difficult to follow the contractual path from generator to consumer, as this can involve many contracts, some of which will not distinguish between energy sources. If done properly, analysing contracts is expensive and prone to error.

Assuming certificates are transferable, and that there is differing demand for electricity from different sources, then this suggests that they will have a value, as they can be used to differentiate between the various energy sources.

The introduction of a market in certificates bring all of the usual market benefits, including improved customer choice, transparency, efficiency and so on.