Little by little, EKOenergy is finding its way to Russia too. Local renewable energy transactions are still difficult, but we are confident that this will change in the near future. The electricity market authorities have understood the growing demand for renewable electricity and will respond to it. EKOenergy is playing an important role in providing neutral and multilingual information to all involved stakeholders.
One of the companies which has stepped forward is ZАО “L’Oreal”, a daughter of the French cosmetics producer. The Vorsino plant, in the Kaluga region near Moscow, runs now on 100% EKOenergy-certified electricity. We are of course very proud about this and we are looking forward to cooperating. Together we can shape a carbon free and sustainable economy, in Russia and elsewhere.
2. Green Key and EKOenergy will cooperate
Green Key and EKOenergy have signed an agreement to promote the use of sustainable energy in the hospitality and tourism sector worldwide.
Green Key is an international ecolabel for the tourism and hospitality industry. Its criteria deal with environmental management, corporate social responsibility and awareness raising. More than 2,500 establishments in 53 countries are Green Key certified.
EKOenergy and Green Key will actively exchange experiences and inform each other about opportunities and challenges in various markets. Green Key will use the expertise of EKOenergy when informing its network about renewable energy. EKOenergy will set up an international campaign focusing on green energy in the hotel sector.
"What is currently happening in Syria is deeply shocking. Few though are aware that one of the root causes of the humanitarian tragedy and social unrest in the country is linked to climate change: From 2006 to 2011 Syria was hit by a devastating drought, with 160 Syrian farming villages being abandoned near Aleppo as crop failures forced over 200,000 rural Syrians to leave for the cities."
Renat Heuberger, CEO, South Pole Group, in the December edition of South Pole's Newsletter
3. Gourmets pick EKOenergy
We're welcoming 2 new EKOenergy users in Italy.
Lesster is a famous artisanal brewery from Verona. The company follows the example of the Finnish brewery Saimaan Juomatehdas and of the Spanish Urban Beer. We are of course looking forward to seeing the EKOenergy logo on Lesster's bottles too.
Monteverdi Vini is a family company selecting, refining, bottling and marketing the best wines from Italy. They fill about 10 million bottles per year.
People with a good taste choose EKOenergy, this is obvious!
Thank you ForGreen, licenced seller of EKOenergy in Italy, for the nice cooperation.
4. Do you want to help select the next Climate Projects?
We are now selecting the projects we want to finance next year. Last September, we got more than 300 project applications. About 75 are still in the running and in the coming weeks, we will further reduce that number to about 20.
We are now looking for consumers, sellers and experts who want to give their opinion on the 20 best ranked projects. Each project is about 5 pages, and we would need your input and scoring by the end of February. Are you interested, contact Steven.Vanholme@sll.fi.
"EKOenergy is growing in Spain @UrbanBeer @100x100madera "
EKOenergy is a network of not-for-profit organisations. Many of our members are actively campaigning against coal and oil.
KOSID from Kosovo is engaged in the debates about national energy policies. They work hard to present alternatives for the current energy strategy, which is mainly focused on building a new lignite fired power plant. Last week, KOSID organised a press conference to draw attention the fate of the residents of Hade village in Obilic, who suffered considerable and un-repairable damages when they were forced to clear the way for the mines of the proposed power plant "Kosova e Re".
"We are pleased to announce this cooperation enabling Green Key to strengthen our expertise as an ecolabel with a big focus on sustainable energy management, and EKOenergy is an excellent partner to support our efforts."
Finn Bolding Thomsen, International Director of Green Key, talking about the cooperation agreement between Green Key and EKOenergy
6. News from the sellers: tool to promote self production
Ecovatios, one of our licensed sellers in Spain launched a tool to promote PV self-production projects in Spain. Ecovatios uses aerial image technology to generate project proposals, including their financial analysis, in less than 24h.
Carlos García Buitrón, CEO of ecovatios, explains: “Due to the radical fall in PV technology costs, self-production projects make good economic sense in Spain, with payback period times of 6 to 9 years, and savings ranging from 15% to 40% on the client's electricity bills”.
“Solar self-consumption is introducing everywhere a paradigm shift in the power sector, and there is no reason why Spain should be different in that respect”.
7. Solar cheaper than wind and half the price of coal
A transformation is happening in global energy markets: solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record breaking cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidised solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale.
While solar was bound to fall below wind eventually, given its steeper price declines, few predicted it would happen this soon.
“Renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting fossil fuel prices", BNEF chairman Michael Liebreich said in a note to clients this week.
We at EKOenergy are always looking to grow our network. If you want more information about becoming a partner of ours, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Little by little, EKOenergy is finding its way to Russia too. Local renewable energy transactions are still difficult, but we are confident that this will change in the near future. The electricity market authorities have understood the growing demand for renewable electricity and will respond to it. EKOenergy is playing an important role in providing neutral and multilingual information to all involved stakeholders.
We're welcoming 2 new EKOenergy users in Italy.
For each MWh of EKOenergy sold, the seller contributes at least 0.10€ to EKOenergy's Climate Fund. With this money we finance renewable energy projects. In 2016, we donated to 5 projects. E.g. 
EKOenergy is a network of not-for-profit organisations. Many of our members are actively campaigning against coal and oil.
Ecovatios, one of our licensed sellers in Spain launched a 
A transformation is happening in global energy markets: solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
