We are evolving fast, in many countries. The leaflet produced last year had become outdated, so we have made a new one. It is available in various languages. More will follow.
Last week, Charlotte Bodenmüller from Berlin, joined the EKOenergy Secretariat. Together with Marie Schaardt, she is part of the "German team" preparing our launch in Germany.
"The energy transition is one of the main challenges nowadays. I'm looking forward to learning a lot about energy economics and about green energy in general. I want to promote renewable energy in Europe and to make the world a little bit better."
At the same time, we say "adiós" to Guillermo Solano de la Asunción. Guillermo has been at the EKOenergy Secretariat as an Erasmus trainee for the last 6 months. He has helped our Spanish licensee Gesternova to make the first EKOenergy sales in Spain.
Discussions between EKOenergy members, the EKOenergy Board and/or companies selling EKOenergy can be referred to our Arbitration Panel, which takes a final decision.
At our start, we agreed that the Arbitration Panel will become operational no later than two years after the first sales of EKOenergy, i.e. by 15th June 2015.
We are now composing the rules and looking for good arbitrators. Feel free to send us your suggestions.
5. WISE study about online price comparing tools
Last month, our Dutch partner WISE published a study on online electricity price comparison tools.
Every year, 1.5 million Dutch use one of the many online price comparison tools to switch their electricity contract.
One of the problems is that the comparison tools only focus on price. For other elements, such as the origin of the electricity or the profile of the seller, there is little to no room. This leads to a race to the bottom in which sustainability is one of the victims.
The EKOenergy secretariat will dig into this issue. We are working on alternatives and we are aiming at testing some of them in the second half of this year. Contact us for more information.
6. Stop coal
EKOenergy is actively involved in the Finnish Energiaremontti-campaign, asking for a fast energy transition in Finland and a ban on coal from 2025 onwards.
We also support the divestment actions launched by 350.org and picked up by many others. One of the most visible divestment campaigns is "Keep it in the ground," started by the British newspaper The Guardian. They want to convince the The Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to divest from fossil fuels. Sign the petition here.
Our German volunteers wrote a letter to Angela Merkel. The country of the Energiewende is also home of 4 of Europe's 5 biggest greenhouse gas emitters. We want German politicians to stop this double standard.
7. Ecorganic ecomarket switches to EKOenergy
The Spanish Ecorganic ecomarket switched to EKOenergÃa and it proudly communicates about this choice on its homepage.
"Caring for the environment has always been part of the philosophy of Ecorgánic since its creation: we are actively focusing on the reduction of waste, for instance through bulk purchasing and using cloth bags instead of plastic. Now, in addition, we will reduce our carbon footprint for our activity has a low impact on the environment!"
8. EKO-Sofia now also speaks Norwegian
Our comic is now also available in Norwegian: "EKO-Sofie - en introduksjon till grønn energi". This is the 30th language version!
This translation comes just in time for the RECS Market Meeting in Oslo. Thanks to translator Trine Braathen.
The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.
The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit last Tuesday. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.
"The electricity system is shifting to clean,'' Michael Liebreich, founder of BNEF, said in his keynote address. "Despite the change in oil and gas prices there is going to be a substantial build-out of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude larger than the build-out of coal and gas."
The newsletter is only one of the ways to keep up to date. EKOenergy is increasingly active on various social media platforms.
We are evolving fast, in many countries. The leaflet produced last year had become outdated, so we have made a new one. It is available in various languages. More will follow.
Last week, Charlotte Bodenmüller from Berlin, joined the EKOenergy Secretariat. Together with Marie Schaardt, she is part of the "German team" preparing our launch in Germany.
Discussions between EKOenergy members, the EKOenergy Board and/or companies selling EKOenergy can be referred to our 
Last month, our Dutch partner WISE published a study on online electricity price comparison tools.
EKOenergy is actively involved in the Finnish Energiaremontti-campaign, asking for a fast energy transition in Finland and a ban on coal from 2025 onwards.
The Spanish Ecorganic ecomarket switched to EKOenergÃa and it proudly communicates about this choice on its homepage.
Our comic is now also available in Norwegian: "EKO-Sofie - en introduksjon till grønn energi". This is the 30th language version!
The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.
