Green electricity: quality, additionality, efficiency
From quality standards to certification schemes – the Öko-Institut’s work on green electricity spans a wide range of topics. Read on to find out more about our basic principles and “current” activities.
What is “good” green electricity?
“Green electricity” is a somewhat open-ended term. There are major discrepancies between the concept of “green electricity”, as viewed from an ecological perspective, and the product that is actually sold by electricity suppliers as “green power”. Generally, the electricity supplied to homes comes from whichever power plant is closest – and that could be nuclear, coal- or gas-fired. So “Am I getting green power?” is really the wrong question. The question we should be asking is: “Is the world getting more green power?”
“Additional” renewable energies
From an ecological perspective, the key issue is to ensure that new renewable energy plants are built to supply green power. These should be additional to the plants which are being built anyway, e.g. in Germany under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and other government funding schemes. Over the medium term, only these additional renewable energies in the European electricity mix will squeeze conventional power plants – coal-or gas-fired, for example – out of the market.
In Germany, renewable energies thus do make a major contribution to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, and hence to protecting the climate. As long as consumers opt for a green electricity product which meets the “additional environmental benefit” criterion, they can be sure that they have made the right choice.
However, some supposedly “green” electricity products come from old power plants – obsolete hydropower plants, for example – which were written off years ago. In this case, no additional environmental benefit is created. What happens, instead, is that existing capacities are simply redistributed, so consumers purchasing these products do not change Europe’s power generation structures over the medium time.
Choosing the right supplier: guidance and support
Quality labels are an important guide for consumers navigating their way through the complexities of the green electricity market. “ok-power” is a particularly good example. This label for green electricity products applies stringent criteria in order to verify that a product genuinely contributes to the expansion of renewable energies. The label is awarded by the association EnergieVision e.V., set up by the Öko-Institut, WWF Germany and the Consumer Association of North Rhine-Westphalia (Verbraucherzentrale NRW). It helps to create more transparency and trust in the green electricity market. The Öko-Institut carries out product certification for the ok-power label on behalf of EnergieVision.
The consumer website EcoTopTen also regularly compares the products offered by green electricity suppliers on the basis of stringent criteria, and produces recommendations on various suppliers’ green electricity tariffs.
Energy-saving is key
But no matter which electricity product consumers choose, energy-saving is the safest and most effective form of climate protection. Every kilowatt-hour of electricity not consumed reduces the amount of climate-damaging emissions into the atmosphere. There is scope for energy-saving everywhere: for example, you can install devices at home which shut down equipment left in standby mode, or if you are shopping for new appliances, it’s best to go for the most energy-efficient option. And by buying green electricity to meet the electricity needs that remain after all these steps, you can make a real contribution to protecting the environment.
Monitoring and developing the European Energy Certificate System (EECS)
A growing number of green electricity suppliers are using guarantees of origin under the European Energy Certificate System (EECS) to show that their products have particular power generation attributes. Certificates are also issued under the Renewable Energy Certificate System (RECS).
These certificates offer reliable evidence that the electricity has been produced from renewable sources. However, EECS guarantees of origin do not constitute a quality standard for green power, as they do not automatically lead to the construction of new renewable power plants. Additional criteria (such as the age of a power plant) are therefore needed, with quality guarantees then being provided by a label such as ok-power.
Within the EECS system, the Öko-Institut is the national issuing body for Germany. This means that the Öko-Institut is responsible for monitoring and developing the system’s rules. The Öko-Institut wishes to make it clear that in its role as issuing body, it does not assess or certify the quality of individual suppliers or green power products. Statements to that effect included in some suppliers’ marketing materials are misleading.
The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, EEG) now stipulates that the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) is the competent authority for issuing, transferring and withdrawing certificates of origin. This covers a large part of the present remit of the Öko-Institut as EECS issuing body. However, the Öko-Institut will continue to perform its tasks as EECS issuing body until UBA has set up the register needed for it to assume this role.
Basic research for high-quality green power
The Öko-Institut’s activities, described above, are based on the work carried out as part of several ongoing or completed research projects on green power and electricity labelling, and include the development of quality standards for green electricity products, extensive studies on electricity labelling, and the development of reliable systems of accounting for energy attributes (which disclose the source of fuel used, for example).
Further information
Oeko-Institut background paper on green electricity (in German language)
Oeko-Institut background paper on green electricity certificate (in German language)
Ok-Power on the EnergieVision e.V. website (in German language)
The Oeko-Institut e.V. - Issuing Body for the European Energy Certificate System (EECS) in Germany (in German language)
EcoTopTen (in German language)
A European Tracking System for Electricity (E-TRACK)
Reliable Disclosure Systems for Europe - RE-DISS
Clean Energy Network for Europe (CLEAN-E)
Needs and Potentials of Electricity Labelling (in German language)
Consumer Choice and Carbon Consciousness for Electricity (4CE)
