A European ‘Green’ Electricity Accreditation Standard

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with a European “Green” Electricity accreditation standard. This chapter illustrates a project which aims at developing a European standard for environmental labeling of electricity—The European Electrolabel. This includes formulation of environmental impact criteria and proposing standards and processes for accreditation. A review of accreditation schemes is presented. It shows that criteria used to classify power production as environmentally acceptable—that is, “green,” differ significantly among the existing national schemes. As an example, the wide range of criteria for biomass is shown. Stakeholder interests in the set-up process are discussed. Preliminary conclusions are that extensive stakeholder participation in the set-up process is vital and that criteria must be adaptable to national differences. The development of “green” electricity (GE) accreditation schemes has begun in many countries. Generally, accepted power production in these schemes is based on renewable energy (RE) sources, but with different environmental criteria and restrictions.