From the Green Energy Wilderness to the Lition Utopia
Dear friends, members and those interested in Lition Energy, did you know that we like to call ourselves zebras? A black and green striped Berlin green-tech start-up that is both sustainably profitable and growing, while contributing to the energy turnaround every single day. For many of you, transparency plays an important role. For this reason, I would like to make a start today in shedding some light on the dark side of the energy industry.
The Problem
Green electricity is energy that is generated exclusively from renewable sources such as wind, sun, water, biomass or geothermal energy. Right?
I wish…
A closer look quickly reveals that the term “green electricity” is not legally protected. Of course many companies take advantage of this. In principle, anyone can do whatever he or she wants with this term. There is indeed electricity that is green only on paper and thus does not reduce emissions by emitting climate-damaging CO₂. Unfortunately, consumers are often taken along for a ride in this way.
The Solution, Which Is None
The energy industry and politicians have come up with something useful: guarantees of origin! The idea of separating electrical energy and its “green property”.
Guarantees of origin prove that a certain amount of electricity was generated in a certain plant. These certificates are available for trade (via the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau) and can only be used once for an end customer (consumer). The latter excludes the possibility of double marketing in generation and consumption. On every electricity bill, this electricity from green electricity must be shown accordingly.
Unfortunately, the environment and the energy turnaround do not really benefit from this. In fact, this system mainly benefits large energy suppliers who still produce a lot of coal and nuclear power. By buying green electricity, many electricity customers wrongly assume that they are buying and promoting renewable energy. Guarantees of origin merely certify that the purchased amount of electricity is actually produced in the EU as green electricity. In addition, green electricity producers receive a small cent per kilowatt hour from the buyers of the guarantees of origin — not really sexy to invest in other sources of green energy. Overall, such guarantees of origin are too cheap to have a positive impact on energy system transformation in a market economy. Since guarantees of origin can be traded, dirty coal or nuclear power can indeed be declared “green” and thus “washed green”. Such “green electricity” can be paid for by coal and nuclear power suppliers with a large green margin. This means that they take advantage of the willingness of customers who want to invest in clean energy to pay, since their so-called “green electricity” from certificates of origin does not provide any information about the actual quality of the electricity.
Guarantees of origin are a necessity, but no customer should pay a surcharge for them if the electricity does not really come from renewable sources.
The Other Solution
Green electricity has the reputation of being basically expensive. This is at least true of those suppliers who comply with the requirements of high-quality green electricity certificates. These guarantee that additional, new renewable plants will be built. This is a very sensible idea in principle, and one that we at Lition support. However, it requires trust in the electricity provider that it will adhere to complex specifications and undergo stringent and verified certification by external bodies.
But even this approach has been circumvented by the energy industry on occasion in the past. Many electricity suppliers have simply created their own certificates. In this way, they create further in-transparency with regards to guarantees of origin and only rarely have access to electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES) certified in accordance with the Energy Industry Act. It is therefore difficult to gain a real insight here.
Conclusion: If, after a long period of research, you finally have an overview of green electricity certificates and trust your electricity supplier, you will have to pay dearly for it.
Welcome to Lition. The Solution for Everyone.
We are working step by step to implement our vision for the electricity system of the future. In this utopia, thanks to technological innovation, all producers and consumers are networked and can trade electricity with each other — independently, cost-effectively and in a user-friendly way. This is why we are working on our own block chain solution, which simultaneously creates transparency and meets the highest IT security and data protection requirements. At the moment, Lition Energy is using guarantees of origin due to the legislation within Germany that forces us do so, but we are working towards and looking forward for a change in that in the future.
Since April 2018, we have been offering electricity directly from the green electricity producers via the Lition marketplace. This allows you to become a customer today and choose the sustainable power plant from which you want to purchase your electricity. In doing so, you ensure that the power producers who are committed to renewable energy are paid for it. And with just three clicks, you can flexibly choose a new power plant every day if you wish. We are the right provider for you if you want to contribute to the energy turnaround and take the change in the energy industry into your own hands with us.
Your energy. Your choice.
