PRIMES product group green electricity Presented by

PRIMES Overview  Environmental impacts  Legal Background  Recommended GPP criteria  Good practise example  Useful Links © Photo courtesy of Simon Howden by

PRIMES Public Procurement and products with high environmental leverage

PRIMES Environmental impacts by electricity  The generation of electricity from fossil fuels is responsible for a substantial proportion of greenhouse gas and other emissions  The growing electricity demand combined with the depletion of non renewable sources  CHP based on non-renewable energy sources has only limited impact on CO2 reduction © Photo courtesy of askpermission by ICLEI

PRIMES Renewable Energy Sources According to the RELIEF project, which quantified the potential environmental benefits of sustainable procurement, 18% of the EU Kyoto commitments could be fulfilled if all European local authorities switched their demand away from the conventional EU mix of electricity to “green electricity” – i.e. electricity produced from renewable sources. Even if only a fraction of this were achieved the environmental rewards would be highly significant.  Wind  Solar  Aerothermal  Geothermal / Hydrothermal  Hydropower  Biomass

PRIMES GPP criteria to approch environmental impacts Increase the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E)  50%: for any contracting authority across the Member States to address the key environmental impacts. Criteria designed to be used with minimum additional verification effort or cost increases.  100%: to purchase the best products available on the market. Criteria may require additional verification effort or a slight increase in cost compared to other products with the same functionality Switch to High efficiency CHP (HE CHP) or CHP based on renewable energy sources, or gas-fired CHP only © Photo courtesy of SKO-Dogern by ICLEI© Photo courtesy of SustNOW by ICLEI

PRIMES Directive 2009/28/EC (promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) According to Directive 2009/28/EC, each EU Member State has to meet a national target on renewable energy by 2020 in order to meet the Community’s target of a 20% share of energy from renewable sources. This includes renewable energy sources used for electricity, heating and cooling and transport (Transport has a target of 10% from renewable sources for all countries). “...energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar, aerothermal, geothermal, hydrothermal and ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogases;” © Photo courtesy of ICLEIbooklet by ICLEI

PRIMES Cost considerations  Price differences between conventional and green electricity depend on the status of liberalisation in the respective country, the national support scheme and the existence of green electricity suppliers.  Green electricity can be more expensive, although price differences are narrowing substantially, and there are cases where green electricity is even available at a cheaper rate.  Increased market liberalisation, upgraded RES generation technologies, rising fossil fuel prices, European RES-E targets and promotion of high efficiency cogeneration – all linked to the current climate debate - have the potential of making green electricity ever more competitively priced. © Photo courtesy of Invisibleviva_dreamstime by ICLEI

PRIMES Recommendations: Subject Matter  Include sustainability aspects within the subject matter Example: Purchase of 100% electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) (‚GPP Training Toolkit‘) Source: © Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

PRIMES Verification (Proof of compliance with tender criteria)  Guarantee of Origin for electricity from RE sources  Type I or ISO ecolabels (underlying criteria set by independent body; monitored by a certification and auditing process)  Proof of compliances (e.g. technical dossier from manufacturer, test report…)  Energy auditing

PRIMES Recommendations: Technicial Specifications (label or % of RE)  100% of supplied electricity must come from renewable energy sources as defined by Directive 2009/28/ECVerification: Relevant documentation from the Guarantee of Origin schemes has to be submitted. Alternatively, any other equivalent proof will be accepted.  At the end of each year of the contract, the contractor must disclose the origin of the electricity supplied to the contracting authority to demonstrate that 100% came from renewable energy sources.Verification: Relevant documentation from the Guarantee of Origin schemes has to be submitted. Alternatively any other equivalent proof will be accepted. This is not required from certified suppliers of 100% green electricity (i.e. carrying a Type-1 ecolabel which uses a definition of RES-E at least as strict as that of Directive 2009/28/EC).

PRIMES Recommendations: Award Criteria  Award will go to “Most economically advantageous tender (MEAT)” Source: © Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

PRIMES Recommendations: Further Ideas

PRIMES National Support Schemes and national RES-E Ecolabels  Countries in the EU run national support schemes helping suppliers of RES. The “feed-in  Tariff ” approach essentially guarantees a set price for certain types of RES- generated electricity (up to a certain amount from any one power station). The “quota system” obliges electricity suppliers to ensure a certain percentage of the electricity they sell comes from certain types of RES.  Eight major RES-E ecolabels available across Europe that differ in a number of aspects.

PRIMES Example: Tender Overview  Subject Matter: Purchase of at least 50% electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E).  Technical specifications: 100% of supplied electricity must come from renewable energy sources as defined by Directive 2009/28/EC. Verification: Verification: Relevant documentation from the Guarantee of Origin schemes has to be submitted. Alternatively, any other equivalent proof will be accepted.  Award criteria: Additional points will be awarded for additional RES-E Verification: Verification: Relevant documentation from the Guarantee of Origin schemes has to be submitted. Alternatively any other equivalent proof will be accepted.  Award will go to most economically advantageous tender (MEAT)

Bremen, Germany Best practise example Introduction  City of Bremen to cover the electricity requirements for a number of local public entities from renewable energy sources  Initial contracting period for two years (2009 to 2010, extended till end of 2012  Supply of 79 million kilowatt hours annually, approx. cost of 7.5 million euro per year © Photo courtesy of Tanatat by

Bremen, Germany Best practise example Technical Specifications  100 percent of the supplied electricity from renewable energy sources  Bids were required to deliver a minimum of 30 percent reduction in the amount of CO2 emissions associated with the supply of  the required electricity, as compared with the average national electricity mix recorded in the GEMIS database.  Variant bids were permitted © Photo courtesy of Tanatat by

Bremen, Germany Best practise examples Results  The additional costs associated with the green requirements included in the tender were calculated at about 0.1 cent/kWh, or approximately 69,000 euro per annum.  Bremen’s political mandate for green procurement enables it to absorb certain higher costs from switching to green electricity.  The CO2 savings associated with Bremen’s purchase are estimated at 75 percent, compared to a supply from non-green sources Award Criteria  Price (90 percent)  Reduction in CO2 emissions (10 percent) © Photo courtesy of Tanatat by

Goettingen, Germany Best practise examples Tender requirements  EcoTopTen (see “Germany” on topten.eu) criteria provided the base for the minimum criteria for electricity from renewable energy sources.  The winning bid “Harz Energie NaturWatt Strom” is composed of 100% wind, water and solar power. Independent TÜV Nord controls every year the origin of electricity and its contribution to the promotion of new renewable energy production (required by EcoTopTen criteria).  Moreover it guarantees transparency throughout the supply chain and engages in the implementation of new renewable energy projects;  100% Green power supply to 51 public assets (schools, administration etc) of the Goettingen District  Period: 24 months ( )  Award criteria: economically most advantageous tender

PRIMES Further resources  Procura+ criteria on green electricity anual/Procura__Manual_Chapter6c_-_green_electricity.pdf anual/Procura__Manual_Chapter6c_-_green_electricity.pdf  GPP criteria:  Topten criteria: