Bonn, May 5, 2020. In 2019, more than 1.3 terawatt hours of green electricity were certified with the Green Electricity label. Never before has so much green electricity with the Grüner Strom label been sold. This corresponds to the electricity needs of more than 410,000 four-person households. A further increase in green electricity sales to 1.4 terawatt hours is expected for 2020, an increase of almost seven percent. It is estimated that this will generate almost 10 million euros in subsidies for energy transition projects.
For every kilowatt hour consumed, green electricity providers must invest a fixed amount in energy transition projects within two years, for example photovoltaic systems, wind farms or electromobility. Now that the last certification period has been completed, it is clear that 83 projects were supported with 12 million euros in 2017. Co-financing with green electricity funding triggered total investments of over 70 million euros in energy transition projects.
"Low-emission and ecological energy supply is a cornerstone for tackling the climate crisis. However, most so-called green electricity products have no measurable impact on the expansion of renewable energies. But we have to drive this forward," sums up Dietmar Oeliger, Chairman of Grüner Strom Label e.V. "The Green Electricity Label guarantees investments in the energy transition, such as photovoltaic and wind power plants, tenant electricity projects or electric mobility. In this way, consumers can directly contribute to a sustainable energy supply through their electricity purchases."
In 2017, a large part of the funding went towards the construction of new photovoltaic and wind energy plants in Germany. But projects abroad also benefit from Green Electricity funding, such as the "Nadezhda" children's aid center, which cares for young people affected by the long-term consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. It takes a 2.5-acre area of solar panels to generate enough energy to provide continuous solar power to the rehabilitation and children's recovery center. The total power of the station, which was put into operation in 2017, is 600 kW, and the system was co-financed with almost 800,000 euros from the Green Electricity Certification funding. Since commissioning, 125,000 kilowatt hours of green electricity have been generated within two months: This could supply over 40 two-person households for a year.
With the Active Townhouse in Frankfurt and the Constance tenant electricity model, two Green Electricity-funded projects have also been awarded the 2017 Innovation Prize of the Association for Municipal Enterprises (VKU). This enabled Mainova in Frankfurt and Stadtwerke Konstanz to invest a total of around 480,000 euros in the two projects with the help of their certified green electricity products.
Since 1999, the Green Electricity funding logic has enabled more than 1,400 energy transition projects to be funded with more than 70 million euros. Since this mostly involves partial funding of projects, the money actually invested is about five times higher.
For more information on the Grüner Strom-Label's support projects, visit:
http://www.gruenerstromlabel.de/gruener-strom/energiewende-projekte/
Keywords
Green power, energy transition, green power product, photovoltaic system, wind power, Chernobyl, Nadeshda, green power
In 2019, over 1.3 terawatt hours of green electricity were certified with the Green Electricity label. Never before has so much green electricity with the Green Electricity label been sold. This corresponds to the electricity needs of more than 410,000 four-person households.
