Greenpeace Energy

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Greenpeace Energy eG

logo
legal form cooperative
founding October 28, 1999
Seat Hamburg
management Nils Müller, Sönke Tangermann
Number of employees 115
sales 110 million euros ,
387 GWh
Branch power supply
Website www.greenpeace-energy.de
Status: February 2020

Greenpeace Energy eG is a nationwide energy supplier in the form of a registered cooperative . The declared aim of the cooperative is, among other things, to provide the most environmentally friendly possible energy. The electricity supplied is exclusively green electricity from renewable energy sources (water and wind). The gas supplied is a natural gas / wind gas mixture with a steadily increasing proportion of wind gas . Greenpeace Energy supplies 180,000 electricity and gas customers, including around 13,500 business and industrial customers, and has 26,000 cooperative members (as of February 2020).

As a founding member, the Greenpeace eV association only holds five shares of 55 euros each in the cooperative. The use of the name is contractually linked to the condition that Greenpeace Energy comply with the requirements of Greenpeace e. V. established quality criteria for “clean electricity”. Otherwise the environmental protection organization and the company are economically and legally independent of each other.

Emergence

In 1998 Greenpeace launched the “Stromwechsel” initiative. Consumers who wanted to switch to an environmentally friendly electricity provider could register there . While more and more consumers agreed to change their electricity provider, Greenpeace could not find a provider who met all the criteria set by the environmental protection organization. That is why Greenpeace Energy eG was founded in 1999 , which markets a large part of the electricity from renewable energies . Until the end of the cooperation in 2017, the areas of network management and energy billing were not taken over by Greenpeace Energy itself, but by Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall as a service provider. These areas have been managed internally from Hamburg since 2018.

The cooperative

When it was founded, Greenpeace Energy chose the legal form of a registered cooperative (eG). The aim was to be independent of banks and major shareholders and to build up the equity capital on a large basis of shareholders, and to be able to offer electricity as cheaply as possible. A return was distributed to the shareholders for the first time for the 2014 financial year. The cooperative is a member of the Central Association of German Consumer Cooperatives .

Membership in the cooperative is formally dependent on electricity purchase - according to the Articles of Association, § 9, (1), f) , a cooperative member who “does not cover his electrical energy needs with supplies from the cooperative” can be excluded. However, this right is expressly not exercised by the cooperative, which is justified, among other things, by the fact that some cooperative members cannot obtain electricity from Greenpeace Energy. A cooperative member must hold at least one and a maximum of one hundred shares of 55 euros each. In June 2016, the meeting of representatives decided to increase the number to a maximum of 400 shares. As usual with cooperatives, each member has only one vote at the general meeting, regardless of the number of shares. In this way, a takeover or influence by major investors is excluded. According to its own statement, the cooperative does not explicitly pursue the goal of profit maximization.

From the limit of 1,500 members, a representative assembly takes the place of the general assembly. Fifty representatives elected by the members then represent the members' rights. Since Greenpeace Energy has significantly more members, representatives are elected every four years. The representatives are selected by an election committee. The tasks of the representative assembly correspond to the tasks of the general assembly according to the cooperative law: It can vote on motions, elect or dismiss the supervisory board and management board as well as vote on their discharge and decide on the distribution of any profit.

history

Former logo 1998–2008
Former logo 2008–2010
1998
Greenpeace starts the electricity change campaign . Due to the great interest in the campaign, a public tender process is being used to find an electricity provider who meets the criteria set by Greenpeace.
1999
In the tendering process, no provider could be found who met the Greenpeace criteria. The purchasing cooperative Greenpeace Energy eG was therefore founded on October 28, 1999 and committed to these criteria.
2000
On January 1st, the power supply by Greenpeace Energy begins with 186 customers. The “Strombarometer” has been available on the Greenpeace Energy website since April 28th. At the end of 2000 the cooperative had 8,500 customers and 6,000 members.
2001
The subsidiary Planet energy GmbH is founded to plan and operate new power plants. A 100-kilowatt solar system is put into operation in Schwäbisch Hall. At the end of the year the number of customers rose to over 12,000 and the number of members to 8,000.
2002
The children's homepage kabelsalat.tv goes online in June. Peter Lustig was the patron of this campaign . The number of customers continued to grow to around 17,000 by the end of the year, at which point the cooperative had more than 10,000 members.
2003
In January, the nuclear power-free Internet campaign starts . Together with Planet energy GmbH, Greenpeace Energy moves into new office space in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel. 20,000 customers and 11,000 cooperative members are recorded at the end of the year and contribute to the first balanced operating result.
2004
The electricity labeling with electricity mix and environmental balance on the electricity bills is introduced. The Parndorf 2 wind farm is put into operation. Planet energy GmbH has a 34% stake in this.
2005
For the fifth anniversary, the cooperative has 11,000 members and 22,000 customers. On October 25th the takeover of all electricity customers of the brand unit [e] naturstrom of Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall is announced. At the end of the year, the number of customers rose to 56,000 and the number of members to 12,000.
2006
In December, a 31,000 square meter rooftop photovoltaic system with an output of 1.56 MWp is put into operation in the Bavarian district of Aichach-Friedberg . The construction costs amounted to 8.2 million euros. At the turn of the year, the cooperative had 12,000 members and the number of customers reached 60,000.
2007
The plan approval decision has been made for the planned Weser power plant. At the end of the year, the cooperative had 14,000 members and supplies 73,000 customers with electricity, including 3,500 business customers.
2010
The number of customers rises to 95,000 and the number of cooperative members to 18,000. The new wind farm in Suderburg with a wind farm output of 6 MW (3 × 2 MW) is put into operation.
2011
The number of customers rises to 110,000 and the number of cooperative members to 23,000
2014
At the end of the year, the cooperative had 110,715 electricity customers, 9,280 gas customers and 22,841 cooperative members
2018
At the end of the financial year, the cooperative reported 130,235 electricity customers, 19,839 gas customers and 25,048 cooperative members. The number of employees is given as 102. The turnover including electricity tax amounted to 110.15 million euros, the balance sheet total 62.8 million euros. Electricity sales in 2018 are stated at 387 gigawatt hours. (Figures from the 2018 annual report)

"Greenpeace criteria for clean electricity"

Greenpeace Energy works on the basis of the "Greenpeace criteria for clean electricity". These criteria were set by Greenpeace e. V., an adjustment to the market conditions last took place in January 2008.

Electricity mix criteria

Consumption-adjusted supply

The electricity is fed in at any time according to consumption. This ensures that the supply for Greenpeace Energy customers does not need electricity from nuclear or coal-fired power plants at all times (without taking grid losses into account ). For the simultaneous feed-in, a reserve amount of power must always be kept in order to be able to compensate for the failure of individual systems. (More on this in the section #Simultaneous feed-in )

Construction of new plants

Every year, the amount of electricity consumed by customers connected since the previous year is determined. This amount must be fed into the German power grid from new systems that are no more than five years old or the construction of which the electricity supplier has initiated at the latest in the fifth following year. As a result, the electricity supplied is not only obtained by decoupling it from the electricity mix, as is the case with many other providers, but also encourages the construction of new, environmentally friendly systems. This is one of the most important points that makes switching to a green electricity provider that meets this criterion sensible.

Promotion of photovoltaics

Up until the last adjustment of the “Greenpeace criteria for clean electricity” on January 1, 2008, they provided that Greenpeace Energy had to obtain at least 1% of the amount of electricity sold from photovoltaic systems or feed it into the grid from newly built photovoltaic systems after five years at the latest here the subsidized tariffs according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act could be used. Due to the development of the photovoltaic industry and against the background of the very successful Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), it was decided that additional funding for photovoltaics through the purchase of solar power is no longer necessary. The corresponding criterion was therefore deleted.

Sustainability

The overall concept of the energy supplier must be designed in such a way that even large amounts of demand can be met over the long term.

Transparency and consumer protection

Important points of the criteria are monitored by independent experts. This includes:

  • Verification of the source of electricity and compliance with the electricity mix criteria
  • Simultaneous power feed
  • Compliance with the maximum emission values
  • Compliance with the new building obligation

Holdings

Direct holdings

  • Planet energy GmbH (100%)
  • Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH (100%)

Indirect holdings

society Shareholder Amount of participation
Planet energy Windpark Soltau GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Dachfonds I GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Planet energy Solar II GmbH & Co. KG) Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Weserkraftwerk Bremen GmbH Planet energy GmbH 0% (left the project)
Planet energy Kraftwerk I GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Solar I GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy Dachfonds I GmbH & Co. KG
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Windpark Ketzin GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy Dachfonds I GmbH & Co. KG
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Windpark Langenbrügge GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH
General partner: Planet energy Verwaltungsgesellschaft I mbH 		100%
Planet energy Windpark Tomerdingen GmbH & Co. KG Limited partner: Planet energy GmbH 100%
oekostrom Produktions GmbH & Co KG, Vienna Limited partner: Planet energy Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG 34%

Power generation

Together with the wholly-owned subsidiary Planet Energy, Greenpeace Energy generates its own electricity. Since Greenpeace Energy has committed itself to feeding the amount of electricity sold to its own customers into the power grid after five years at the latest from plants built during this period, plant construction and operation is an important pillar in their business activities.

Own power plants deliver to network operators, supplier power plants to Greenpeace Energy customers

Planet Energy's systems currently (2013) feed in the electricity generated in accordance with the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The network operator is obliged to purchase the electricity at the level of the feed-in tariff guaranteed by the state for 20 years. If you were to deliver to Greenpeace Energy customers, you would have to do without this state indirect funding mechanism, which distributes the burden of the energy transition on the shoulders of all those who pay the EEG surcharge and could not drive the expansion forward so efficiently. Therefore, the supplier power plants from which the electricity is obtained are outside the funding options under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (e.g. Austria, system age over 20 years), while the self-operated power plants often use the EEG funding.

The formulation in the catalog of criteria, which is at least misleading, "The promotion of new systems is achieved by the fact that the electricity supplier must supply new systems to the new customer base within one year at the latest after the fifth calendar year" in Chapter 3 is corrected by Section 3.2 (Definition of new systems) : “New systems are systems that have been initiated by the provider himself. These systems supply customers directly as part of the full supply in accordance with 2.1 or feed into the public power grid within the framework of the EEG. "

Own plants

investment place power completion
Photovoltaic system Schwäbisch Hall 000000000000000.10000000000.1 MW 2001
Photovoltaic system Dasing 000000000000001.50000000001.5 MW 2006
Wind farm Parndorf II, Austria 000000000000004.00000000004 MW 2004
Wind farm Soltau 000000000000003.90000000003.9 MW 2006
Photovoltaic system Stuttgart, New Fair 000000000000003.80000000003.8 MW 2008
Wind farm Heretic 000000000000008.00000000008 MW 2009
Wind farm Roydorf 000000000000002.40000000002.4 MW 2009
Wind farm Langenbrugge 000000000000004.00000000004 MW 2010
Wind farm Suderburg 000000000000006.00000000006 MW 2010
Wind farm Miraculous life 000000000000006.00000000006 MW 2011
Run-of-river power plant Bremen 000000000000010.000000000010 MW 2011
Wind farm Buchhain I + II 000000000000014.000000000014 MW 2012
Wind farm Rinteln 000000000000004.80000000004.8 MW 2015 *
Wind farm Sailershausen Forest 000000000000024.000000000024 MW 2015 *
Wind farm Schwanewede 000000000000007.00000000007 MW 2015 *
Wind farm Tomerdingen 000000000000007.20000000007.2 MW 2013
Wind farm Uetersen stock 000000000000004.40000000004.4 MW 2001
Wind farm Uetersen repowering 000000000000012.000000000012 MW 2015 *
Wind farm Wilsickow 000000000000022.000000000022 MW 2016 *
Total: 19 Total: 145.1 MW
  • planned completion

Generation of electricity by third parties

Since the cooperative does not have a sufficiently large plant park, a large part of the electricity is purchased in order to be able to supply its own customers at any time. A list of these power plants is published on the Greenpeace Energy website. The largest part is purchased from run-of-river power plants in Austria. In 2007, a larger number of wind power plants from Denmark were added and the entire gas power plants, which in 2006 still accounted for 24% of Greenpeace Energy's electricity mix , are no longer used to supply their own customers. For the tenth anniversary of the cooperative in October 2009, 100% of the electricity for its own customers was purchased from 17 Austrian run-of-river works, some of them very old. The attempt to buy electricity from the Parsing II wind farm had to be stopped shortly beforehand for reasons of economy.

The cooperative does not purchase all of the electricity generated by all of the supplier power plants. Since the supplier power plants are predominantly power plants that cover the base load (run-of-river power plants) or are not controllable (wind power plants), the fluctuating demand and generation can only be compensated by equally fluctuating purchases from the base load power plants. In the long term, however, there are plans to expand the power plant portfolio in such a way that the simultaneous supply of customers can be guaranteed without having to let third parties compensate for the fluctuations. This is intended to sustainably meet the criterion of future viability and to demonstrate that power supply is only possible on the basis of renewable energy .

It is important to Greenpeace Energy not to buy any electricity on the electricity exchange and not to use RECS certificates.

Electricity mix

The current electricity mix (which is partly based on average data) can be read off the homepage every 15 minutes. The annual average resulted in the following values:

Energy source Federal German
average 2008 		Greenpeace Energy
2008 		Greenpeace Energy
2009 		Greenpeace Energy
2010 		Greenpeace Energy
2011
Renewable energy 15.8% 100% 100% 100% 100%
    Hydropower 1.0% 73.7% 78.0% 98.4% 98.3%
    Wind energy 0.0% 5.9% 5.0% 1.6% 1.7%
    Solar power 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
    Biomass 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
    EEG electricity 14.8% 19.4% 17.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Nuclear energy 25.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Fossil fuels
+ other 		58.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Radioactive waste
( µg / kWh ) 		700 0 0 0 0
CO 2 emissions
(g / kWh) 		506 0 0 0 0

The EEG share in the electricity mix ceased to exist from 2010 due to changed legal provisions. In 2013, electricity was only obtained from renewable sources.

Simultaneous feed-in

There are other electricity suppliers who offer 100% green electricity , but Greenpeace Energy is one of the few who always buy the amount of energy that is consumed by their customers. For this purpose, an averaged load profile is assumed for small consumers , which very precisely reflects the total power consumption of the small consumers at all times (see energy data management ). The simultaneous feed-in has the following effect compared to the same amount, in which the amount of energy consumed is only fed in on average over the entire year:

In the interim, the electricity is only bought formally at a time-adjusted basis; the electricity that is not purchased is fed into the general electricity network and has to be stabilized by the responsible network operators through regular measures. This can be ecologically beneficial, at least at the level of the flow of money for Greenpeace Energy customers. However, the longer-term goal is to enable a consumption-adjusted supply of the overall market with renewable energy. To this end, Greenpeace Energy invests in technical developments to physically compensate for fluctuations in demand.

  • Participation in pilot projects for virtual power plants, which demonstrate the feasibility of a stable supply with renewable energies and CHP systems.
  • Development of wind gas storage technology: Excess electricity from wind turbines is used for the electrolytic generation of easily storable hydrogen.

General admissibility of natural gas

In order to accelerate the phase-out of nuclear power and coal-based electrical power generation, Greenpeace Energy initially relied to a limited extent on natural gas-powered CHP systems (combined heat and power). The prerequisite, however, was that the system had an overall energy efficiency of at least 70%. In 2007, the CHP share in the electricity mix was replaced by wind energy. This means that the share of renewable energies in Greenpeace Energy's electricity mix has been 100% since 2007.

Wind gas concept

With proWindgas, Greenpeace Energy offers gas customers a gas tariff that promotes innovative wind gas technology. The natural gas / wind gas mix offered by Greenpeace Energy contains a steadily increasing proportion of wind gas.

Pricing

Greenpeace Energy offers nationwide - if the supply can be started at all, which is the case almost everywhere - the same price.

Testing

From the Stiftung Warentest Greenpeace Energy was designated as an independent four green energy providers in Germany, the result of the investigation was published in February 2012 found.

other activities

Cambio (car sharing) electric vehicle pilot project

Greenpeace Energy created the “ Nuclear Power- Free Internet ” initiative . Here hosters are presented who operate their servers with environmentally friendly electricity.

The website kabelsalat.tv was set up to explain the origin of electricity to children .

A cooperation was agreed with the car sharing provider Cambio CarSharing , according to which both providers became customers of the other and the customers of one provider received discounts from the other.

The customers of the green electricity tariff nova naturstroum of the Luxembourg electricity supplier Enovos are supplied by Greenpeace Energy, so that electricity can also be purchased in Luxembourg via Greenpeace Energy.

The cooperative publishes the magazine “energy.”, Which among other things contains current figures on the company and informs about (new) known customers and their other nature conservation efforts; a reference list with business customers can be found on the website.

criticism

The business interests of Greenpeace Energy and its shareholders, in particular the construction of large wind turbines, have already met with resistance from residents and nature conservation organizations. In the district of Schaumburg in the Weser Uplands, Nabu Schaumburg has been trying for years with legal means to prevent the installation of two almost 150 meter high rotors in the Schaumburg-Hameln Nature Park. Here Greenpeace Energy's plans threatened the continued existence of two breeding pairs of ospreys and white-tailed eagles. The nature and bird sanctuary Auenlandschaft Hohenrode could allegedly also be massively impaired. The online magazine “Flugbegleiter”, which is devoted to bird topics, criticized in September 2018 that Greenpeace Energy has withdrawn from this wind energy project, but has left the building rights to another company.

See also

Web links

Commons : Greenpeace Energy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Greenpeace Energy eG at a glance. (PDF) Greenpeace Energy eG, January 2020, accessed on February 17, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Green electricity
  3. ↑ wind gas
  4. ↑ https://www.greenpeace-energy.de/ueber-uns/zahlen-ffekten.html
  5. ↑ Greenpeace Energy eG company brochure, status: 6/2013 (PDF; 1.5 MB)
  6. ↑ Greenpeace Energy Blog: Completely on your own two feet ; accessed on January 1, 2018
  7. ^ Circular letter to the members of the cooperative dated August 7, 2015
  8. ^ Bylaws of Greenpeace Energy eG ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 114 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / greenpeace-energy.de
  9. ↑ Annual Report 2018. Accessed January 14, 2020 .
  10. ↑ a b Annual Report 2008. Accessed on February 16, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Criteria catalog Greenpeace Energy 2012 (PDF; 67 kB)
  12. ↑ Operator information for the Schwäbisch Hall photovoltaic system
  13. ↑ Operator information for the Dasing photovoltaic system
  14. ↑ Operator information for the Parndorf II wind farm
  15. ↑ Operator information for the Soltau wind farm
  16. ↑ Operator information for the Stuttgart photovoltaic system
  17. ↑ Operator information for the Ketzin wind farm
  18. ↑ Operator information for the Roydorf wind farm ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenpeace-energy.de
  19. ↑ Operator information for the Langenbrügge wind farm ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenpeace-energy.de
  20. ↑ Operator information for the Suderburg wind farm ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenpeace-energy.de
  21. ↑ Operator information for the Wundersleben wind farm ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenpeace-energy.de
  22. ↑ Operator information Weserkraftwerk Bremen
  23. ↑ Operator information for wind farm Buchhain I and II ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenpeace-energy.de
  24. ↑ Operator information for the Rinteln wind farm
  25. ↑ Operator information community wind farm Sailershauser Wald
  26. ↑ Operator information for the Schwanewede wind farm
  27. ↑ Operator information for Tomerdingen wind farm
  28. ↑ a b Operator information for the Uetersen wind farm
  29. ↑ Operator information for the Wilsickow wind farm
  30. ↑ Greenpeace Energy does not buy electricity from the electricity exchange - press release of June 11, 2008
  31. ↑ Position paper What Greenpeace Energy criticizes about RECS certificates - press release in July 2008 (PDF, 48 kB)
  32. ↑ Pilot test virtual power plant (Greenpeace Energy, Planet energy and Stadtwerk Haßfurt) (2013)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.greenpeace-energy.de  
  33. ↑ Greenpeace Energy participates in a research project on electricity-controlled and heat-storing CHP technology; 2009  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.greenpeace-energy.de  
  34. ↑ http://www.greenpeace-energy.de/presse/artikel/article/greenpeace-energy-und-stadt-hassfurt-produzieren-erneuerbaren-wasserstoff-fuer-die-energiewende.html
  35. ↑ The gas tariff per wind gas
  36. ↑ Wind gas makes green electricity storable
  37. ↑ Natural gas is the bridge - wind gas is the future
  38. ↑ magazine test 02/2012
  39. ↑ Internet free of nuclear power
  40. ↑ Reference list of business customers by postcode and industry ( memento of the original from July 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / greenpeace-energy.de
  41. ↑ See Schaumburger Zeitung of February 26, 2017: "Money wins over morals"
  42. ↑ Escape from responsibility at www.riffreporter.de, accessed on December 18, 2018

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '30.9 "  N , 10 ° 0' 5.6"  E