"EKOenergi er et nettverk av europeiske miljøorganisasjoner som ønsker å fremme bruken av bærekraftig elektrisitet. For tiden har nettverket 31 medlemmer fra 23 europeiske land, og flere vil slutte seg til etterhvert."

Randi, a volunteer who got to know us via The Rosetta Foundation, translated most of our website to Norwegian. See www.ekoenergy.org/no

Our information is now available in 26 languages. Thanks a lot! And yes, extra help remains welcome.

Picture: http://norwegiancourse.no/becoming-norwegian/

Most of the European countries have alligned their Guarantee of Origin system with the "EECS rules" of the AIB.   These EECS rules allow so-called "Independent Certification Schemes (ICS)", such as labels, to use the Guarantee of Origin system to transfer own information. This means in particular that the name of the label can be  mentioned on the Guarantees of Origin of power plants that fulfill the criteria set by that label.

EKOenergy was already using this ICS system and the AIB Board has confirmed that we can continue to do so under the newest AIB rules.

From 17 to 20 March, we participated to the RECS Market Meeting, where we had tens of meetings and encounters.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by all the differences between countries and systems. However, we were once more surprised by the similarities. All over Europe stakeholders are looking for good ways to "get more out of the market". ECOHZ developed the GO², the German labels are looking for new ways to "make a difference", in the Netherlands a consortium of NGOs ranked products and suppliers, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol encourages companies to go for a "regulatory surplus" (i.e. doing more than what the law requires).

We got a lot of new ideas and we made many new friends. We'll keep you informed about how we follow up on this.

Picture: ECOHZ

In the EU, marketing of electricity products (such as green electricity) is possible thanks to a tracking system called the Guarantees of Origin.

Outside the EU and the US, there are only few countries with electricity tracking systems. That's why a group of experts has set up a private tracking system, the International Renewable Energy Certificate system, I-REC, which can work in almost all countries. They are currently piloting the system  in Turkey, South-Africa and Taiwan.

We are studying if the system fulfills the EKOenergy tracking criteria (EKOenergy Criteria Text, chapter 10.1) and checking if we could use it to start selling EKOenergy in Turkey.

Suggestions and remarks welcome.