Market analyses indicate that the potential market for electricity from renewable energy sources goes beyond the small niche that it has occupied thus far. Unfortunately many green products which are offered on the voluntary green electricity market do not represent a real improvement for the environment as they fail to generate additional environmental and climate benefits (environmental additionality).

Quality labels which define a minimum standard for green electricity products assist consumers to verify the ecological performance of green products. National labelling programmes which have emerged in some European countries became important and powerful instruments to strengthen consumer confidence in the green electricity market.

The CLEAN-E project will accompany the establishment of new and the improvement of existing green electricity product labels in selected EU Member States. In this regard the CLEAN-E project will support the efforts of the European Green Electricity Network EUGENE, a non-profit approach which has set up a minimum standard for green electricity labelling schemes. The EUGENE standard will serve as the major point of orientation throughout the project.

The establishment of new labels will be accompanied by a wide range of activities. This includes the development of ecological minimum standards for the two key renewable technologies hydropower and biomass. The project also widens the scope of green power labelling towards the integration of energy efficiency as well as renewable heat. CLEAN-E also has a focus on the interface of green power labels with RES related policies on the national and the EU level including the Guarantee of Origin for renewable electricity and Electricity Disclosure. Furthermore, the project will include a wide range of activities aimed at disseminating and sharing best practices for green power procurement.

The work of IFZ will especially focus on the establishment and improvement of standards for electricity from biomass.