FAQ Grünes Gas-Label
What you should know about biogas
Grünes Gas-Label
Frequently asked questions
With Green Gas-certified tariffs, guaranteed investments flow into the expansion of renewable energies.
The level of investment is determined by a fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed. Thus, your gas purchase indirectly influences the investments in the energy transition. The areas of support include the mobility transition, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other projects that serve the energy transition, such as nature conservation, development cooperation, and education.
You can find the whole range in the criteria catalog for the Grünes Gas-Label.
Find out which suppliers offer gas tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Labelor contact your supplier and ask about a biogas tariff with the Grünes Gas-Label. Select a labeled tariff and sign the supply contract of the new supplier. The rest is similar to the electricity switch: The new gas supplier cancels the old contract for you at the next possible date and initiates everything else. Until the transfer, the local or previous supplier is obliged to maintain the gas supply. This means that there will be no interruption in supply.
You can find gas tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Label here.
Note: Individual, named biogas tariffs are always certified, not the supplier itself.
Green gas
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials or energy crops (e.g., corn or through-grown silphia).
The abbreviation NawaRo stands for the term renewable raw materials.
This refers to plants or plant components that originate from agricultural production and are not used as food or feed, but are used materially or energetically, e.g. for the production of biogas.
Sewage gas is a methane-containing gas produced during wastewater treatment by the digestion of sewage sludge. Sewage gas contains between 45 and 70 percent methane by volume.
As the name suggests, this is gas that is produced artificially. Gas is produced from water in an electricity-intensive process called electrolysis. This concept is called power-to-gas. In this context, people often talk about green hydrogen. Green' here means that hydrogen is produced with the help of green electricity.
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials (e.g. maize or through-grown silphia), but only if there is an ecologically sustainable operator concept that is conducive to the energy transition.
Biogas tariffs
Even though the name suggests it, biogas is not automatically an environmentally friendly product. It is true that biogas production is renewable and generally more environmentally friendly than conventional energy from large power plants. However, it can be done very differently from an ecological point of view.
In addition, there are natural gas-only tariffs that do not include biogas and are offered under the name Ökogas or Klimagas. Since the extraction of fossil natural gas releases CO₂, the providers of such tariffs often promise to offset the CO₂ quantity elsewhere.
The Grünes Gas-Label was developed to provide consumers with orientation in the gas market. It stands for biogas produced in an environmentally compatible manner. The Green Gas label is only awarded to gas tariffs in which the production and use of the biogas meet the requirements of a demanding environmental standard. Criteria catalog designed by independent energy experts.
Consumers can thus be sure that at least ten percent of the tariff is made up of environmentally friendly biogas or synthetically produced green gases.
The Grünes Gas-Label creates a double benefit for the energy transition: Purchase of at least ten percent environmentally friendly produced biogas or synthetically produced green gases and guaranteed investments in new plants and innovative energy transition projects. This provides impetus for the environmentally compatible expansion of renewable energies.
The guaranteed investments in the nature-friendly expansion of renewable energies are a key differentiator compared to other biogas tariffs.
Biogas tariffs for end consumers:inside do not exclusively contain upgraded biogas, known as biomethane. Many suppliers offer natural gas with a biogas content of five, ten or 20 percent, but gas tariffs can also consist of 100 % of biogas. Gas tariffs that carry the Green Gas label contain At least ten percent biogas, whose production and use meet the requirements of a demanding Criteria catalog suffice.
Before feeding into the natural gas grid, the Biogas to biomethane prepared become. When it comes out of the fermenter of the biogas plant, the biogas is saturated with water vapor and contains unwanted by-products such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In a multi-stage process, the gas is purified of these by-products as far as possible. This also increases the proportion of methane in the biogas.
Depending on the composition and intended use, different treatment processes are applied. Among other things, biomethane is converted into electricity directly on site in combined heat and power plants, supplied to filling stations as fuel for natural gas vehicles, or fed into the natural gas grid, as is the case with biogas tariffs.
Find out which suppliers offer gas tariffs with the switch to biogasor contact your supplier and ask about a biogas tariff with the Grünes Gas-Label. Select a labeled tariff and sign the supply contract of the new supplier. The rest is similar to the electricity switch: The new gas supplier cancels the old contract for you at the next possible date and initiates everything else. Until the transfer, the local or previous supplier is obliged to maintain the gas supply. This means that there will be no interruption in supply.
You can find gas tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Label here.
Note: Individual, named biogas tariffs are always certified, not the supplier itself.
Guaranteed investment in new equipment
With Green Gas-certified tariffs, guaranteed investments flow into the expansion of renewable energies.
The investment amount is determined by a fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed. Thus, your gas purchases also indirectly influence investments in the energy turnaroundThe funding areas include the mobility transition, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other projects that serve the energy transition, such as nature conservation, development cooperation, and education.
You can find the whole range in the criteria catalog for the Grünes Gas-Label.
In the case of gas tariffs with Grünes Gas-Label. at least 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour consumed invested in the expansion of renewable energies. Many energy providers invest more than 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour. If you want to compare a gas tariff via the tariff portal of the environmental associations, the subsidy component and your energy transition contribution will be displayed for the respective energy provider.
In the construction of new renewable power generation plants, the Grüner Strom Label e.V. defines in many cases Environmental requirements that go beyond what is required by law. This ensures that the subsidies go to plants with the highest environmental standards.
Before subsidies flow into energy transition projects, a concept must be submitted and approved by Grüner Strom Label e.V.. In the catalog of criteria for the Grünes Gas-Label you will find more information about this.
Thanks to the customers of the certified green electricity and biogas tariffs, energy turnaround projects are being implemented on an ongoing basis. On our Germany map all interested parties can see where these plants and projects are located, what their output is, when they were built and by which provider they were funded.
Certification process and certified tariffs
Biogas supplier with Grünes Gas-Label
This is what we have achieved together
By choosing a certified green electricity or biogas tariff, you are directly supporting the energy transition. For every kilowatt hour consumed, a fixed amount goes toward the expansion of renewable energies - that's sustainable thinking.
Switch to a certified electricity or biogas tariff now
There are already several online comparison portals for electricity and gas rates. So what's the point of another one?
At the comparison portal of the environmental associations, consumers can compare high-quality and exclusively certified green electricity and biogas tariffs.
"vergleich-dich-gruen.de" offers you the opportunity to actively participate in an energy transition that is nature-friendly, decentralized, citizen-oriented, public welfare-oriented, fair and pollutant-free through your purchase decision.
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Grüner Strom Label e.V. | Kaiserstrasse 113 | 53113 Bonn | Germany
Tel: +49 (0)228 / 522 611-90 | E-Mail: info@gruenerstromlabel.de