Clean-E
The Clean-E project had the aim to strengthen and harmonise green power
labelling activities across Europe. The project is terminated.
Background
In the next decades the market for green power in Europe will definitely be
growing. Households, the commercial sector and public bodies are buying green
power because they want to help fighting climate change and improving the market
for renewable energy sources. Therefore, the credibility of the product claims
is a key issue in this market segment.
Quality labels (such as the German "ok-power" label or the Swiss label "naturemade star") are designed to gain and
maintain the consumers’ confidence. They define a product standard and ensure
independent verificationof the ecological performance of green power offers.
Clean-E Project
CLEAN-E is assisting the development of green power labels across selected EU
Member States (in particular France, Spain, Italy, Austria and Sweden). The
expansion and improvement of green power labels will provide green power
consumers with the certainty that they support products with high environmental
benefits.
Currently a first series of workshops is carried out in the target countries. The workshops aim at bringing together organisations (e.g. environmental and consumer groups) which could jointly build the core group for the forthcoming national labelling work. At the same time suppliers, which would be willing to undergo some form of pilot certification, shall be attracted.
Expected results:
- New and further developed green power labelling schemes in selected EU Member States (point of orientation: Eugene Standard)
- Criteria for ecological minimum standards for hydropower and biomass in the scope of green power labels
- Methodology and guidelines how to integrate measures in the field of energy efficiency and RES-H in green power labelling schemes
- Guidelines of how to integrate new policies such as the Guarantee of Origin and Electricity Disclosure in green power labels
- A revised blueprint for the tracking standard, which takes into account the results from the consultations
Task 2.1: Development of ecological standards for hydropower
Within the Clean-E project CIRUS has been assigned the task to make the basic principles of hydropower assessment in Switzerland (cf. greenhydro standard) available for green power labeling schemes in other countries. This includes a transfer of the scientific knowledge and the practical experiences gathered so far. The work package will result in general guidelines for an encompassing eco-assessment of hydropower plants. It will also provide a concrete roadmap on how to proceed in order to develop specific criteria and a respective certification procedure that fit the different national frame-conditions.
For Germany a feasibility study was carried out that also included the (pilot-) assessment of various hydropower plants against the greenhydro standard.
First report of Task 2.1 (Dec. 05)
"Development of ecological
standards for hydropower" (pdf, 730 kB)
Second report of Task 2.1 (Dec. 06)
"Transfer of the greenhydro
standard to Germany - feasibility study" (pdf, 1040 kB)
Further information
Duration of the project
01/2005– 12/2006
Responsible at Eawag
J. Markard, A. Ruef, S. Vollenweider