How do you certify green electricity?

01 April 2021

More and more people are opting for green electricity for the sake of the environment. But just having “green electricity” on the label is no guarantee of benefits to the environment. This is because green electricity is not clearly defined in Germany. Certificates and quality seals are intended to provide electricity customers with the guidance they need. Environmental expert Ulrich Walter from TÜV NORD CERT explains the requirements energy suppliers need to meet for the “Geprüfter Ökostrom” (“Certified Green Electricity”) TÜV NORD certificate to be awarded and what is involved in this kind of certification.

#explore: What requirements does an electricity provider need to satisfy for certification?

Ulrich Walter: First of all, 100 percent of the electricity has to be demonstrably generated from renewable energy sources. One of the other purposes of the certificate is to push ahead with the expansion of renewables and, with it, the energy transition. This means that at least one third of the electricity must come from wind, solar or hydropower plants that are no older than six years. Alternatively, the electricity provider can invest a set amount in the construction of new plants. As a rule, this is 0.25 cents for every kilowatt hour of green electricity. In general, the green electricity provided by suppliers mustn’t come from plants that are already being subsidised under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) – this is prohibited by the ban the EEG contains on so-called double marketing. After all, this subsidy is already being financed by every electricity customer through the EEG levy on their electricity bill.

How do you assess whether the energy supplier is also advertising its green electricity correctly to consumers?

We examine its websites, invoices and tariff and price sheets and check whether the properties of the green electricity advertised correspond to what we’ve found in the audit. We also look at what the energy supplier is generally saying about itself and its activities in the renewables field. If, for example, it states that it has built wind farms or biomass cogeneration plants, we will check whether these are also reflected in its plans to expand the use of renewables. Basically, we’re really strict when it comes to ensuring that companies with our seal of approval only advertise things that we’ve also verified and which are accordingly covered by the certificate.

What would a critical case look like here?

Many of the energy suppliers we’ve certified make the generation of their green electricity carbon neutral using by certificates to that effect. Emissions are also generated during the construction and operation of wind or hydropower plants – turbines have to be replaced, and the staff offices need electricity and heat. These emissions are very low and account for only a fraction of the German electricity mix. But if the energy supplier advertises this electricity as carbon neutral, it must acquire the appropriate certificates, for example for independently validated and verified reforestation projects, to compensate for the emissions. And all this has to be verified by us. In the audit, we look at whether the relevant certificates are available or whether the company still needs to take further steps before it can justifiably refer to its electricity as “carbon neutral”. In this way, we ensure that the information provided by suppliers can be relied on by their customers.