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Receive Grünes Gas-Label

Get quality seal for your biogas tariff Certification requirements

The obligations associated with certification are regulated in detail in the label agreement and the criteria catalog.

In essence, you are committing to...

... to at least 10 % biogas.

All Green Gas certified tariffs have a minimum biogas content of 10 %.

... on energy transition projects.

They promote the expansion of renewable energies with a fixed amount of 0.2 cents per kWh.

... to quality.

Evidence of compliance with the criteria, key data such as the volume of gas sold, and the amount of the investment commitment and its use are regularly reviewed.

5

... to transparency.

You report transparently to your customers about the certified tariff and the use of the subsidies.

Your path to certification

Step by step to the seal of approval for your biogas tariff

Step 1

You fill the Initial certification form and inform us about your company and the biogas tariff you would like to have certified.

Step 2

We will check your information, discuss all open questions together with you and advise you on the Tariff design. Provided there is nothing to the contrary, we subsequently give the "green light".

Step 3

We sign with you the label agreement with the annexes Green Gas Criteria Catalog and Certification procedure. These documents lay down the basis for certification.

Step 4

You will receive the label for the rest of the current Certification period in advance and can now start selling the tariff directly.

How to check your tariff Certification procedure

The

After signing the label agreement, Grüner Strom Label e.V.. grants you the label for the rest of the certification period in advance. You can directly contact the Distribution of the product launch.

The expert opinion

The results of the monitoring are summarized in an expert report by DVGW CERT GmbH as an independent auditor. We then decide whether the label is to be extended and, if so, what conditions are associated with it.

The monitoring

The regular monitoring always takes place retroactive takes place. At the end of the first period and annually thereafter, you submit documents on the basis of which it is checked whether the criteria have been met. A robust evaluation system for manufacturers, suppliers and energy providers has been developed for this purpose. You can submit the documents largely via standardized data tables.

Certification costs

This is what you pay for the label

The costs for the Grünes Gas-Label are divided into
1. The label fee
2. The certification fee

Sales-dependent components of the offer always refer to the sales of the entire gas product, not only to the bio- or green gas share in the product.

Label fee

The label fee is annual raised and depends on the Sales volume of your tariff.

It is used for services for the label holders, e.g. the supervision of the certification, public relations and the operation of the office.

Certification fee

The certification fee is Every two years raised and is basically effort-dependent staggered.

Reference year for both fees is usually the previous year of certification or, in the case of a new product launch, the estimated sales of the product.

Together for the energy turnaround

Your contact

Gruener-Strom employee-Christian

Christian Knops

Green Gas Certification Manager

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.

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Satisfied green electricity customers
1
certified green electricity tariffs
1
Promoted energy transition projects
1
Invested subsidies (€)
comparison-you-green.com website on-smartphone

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.

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.

The Grünes Gas-Label is the only biogas quality label supported by leading civil society organizations. The supporting associations can be found here.

Through the work of the carrier associations in the board of directors and general meeting, they play a major role in shaping the certification to this day. Changes in the label's criteria, for example, must be approved by all the sponsoring associations.

The Grünes Gas-Label is awarded by Grüner Strom Label e.V., which has been awarding the Grüner Strom-Label for green electricity tariffs since 1998.

Biogas in general

Biogas is produced by the bacterial decomposition of animal or plant substances in a biogas plant. These substances can be, for example, biogenic residues, such as the waste from the organic waste garbage can or liquid manure from agriculture. The fermentation of these substances produces, among other things, biomethane. The resulting biomethane can be used as an energy source in the same way as natural gas and can be fed into the natural gas grid, for example. There are various ways to produce biogas and not all variants are ecologically sustainable.

Substrates, also called feedstocks, are the biogenic raw materials that are introduced into a biogas plant to produce gas. Here, a rough distinction can be made between three classes:

  • 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.

A biogas plant usually consists of a fermentation tank with gas storage, the so-called fermenter, as well as a preliminary pit, a secondary fermenter and fermentation residue storage.

The fermenter, the core of a biogas plant, is filled with the substrates (e.g. NawaRo and liquid manure from the preliminary pit). In the fermenter, the actual biogas formation takes place under exclusion of sunlight and oxygen. Depending on the initial substrate, biogas can be produced by wet or dry fermentation (= digestion). In wet fermentation, a high water content in the fermentation substrate makes the mass stirrable and flowable. Dry fermentation or solid-state fermentation is carried out with stackable organic biomass without mixing. However, it is rather rare in Germany.

The substrate is heated to around 35 to 55 degrees Celsius to accelerate the methane formation process. On average, the substrate remains in a fermenter for 30 days before degassing in the secondary fermenter for another month. The resulting biogas consists of 50 to 70 percent methane, plus carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide.

Depending on the end use (on-site power generation, feeding into the natural gas grid, etc.), the biogas is further upgraded. The remaining substrate mixture from the fermenter (digestate) is then reused by farmers as high-quality fertilizer for their fields.

The production of biogas is renewable, largely CO₂-neutral, can be decentralized and occurs independently of limited fossil energy sources. This makes it more environmentally friendly than conventional energy from large-scale power plants. However, biogas production can take place in very different ways from an ecological point of view.

To guarantee a sustainable energy supply, biogas must be produced in an environmentally compatible manner. This includes both the raw materials used and their processing, as well as the logistics of the substrates and the fermentation residues.

The energetic and material use of (anyway accumulating) organic residual and waste materials is part of a sustainable use of resources.

Only certain feedstocks may be used for biogas with the Grünes Gas-Label:

  • 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.

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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

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Receive Grünes Gas-Label

Welcome to the service portal

On this page you will find all the important documents about the Green Electricity and Green Gas Label.

Grüner Strom-Label

Here you can find all the documents about the Green Electricity Label.

Green electricity tariffs awarded with the Grüner Strom-Label guarantee investments in energy transition projects that are compatible with nature.

Green Gas Label

Here you can find all the documents about the Green Gas Label.

Grünes Gas-Label

Green electricity label

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Green electricity tariffs awarded with the Grüner Strom-Label guarantee investments in energy transition projects that are compatible with nature.

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Elisa Voß

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catalog of criteria

The criteria catalog...

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Green Gas Label

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Grünes Gas-Label

Your contact

Gruener-Strom employee-Christian

Christian Knops

Green Gas Certification Manager

Range 1

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catalog of criteria

The criteria catalog...

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catalog of criteria

The criteria catalog...

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The criteria catalog...

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Together for the energy turnaround

Your contact persons:inside

Elisa Voß

Elisa Voß

Working student Online Communication

Gruener-Strom employee-Christian

Christian Knops

Green Gas Certification Manager

Gruener-Strom employee-Nina

Nina Cernohorsky

Speaker Green Gas, Green Power Certification