Green gas
Your guide in the biogas jungle Our Grünes Gas-Label
You want to change your gas tariff, but lose the overview in the tariff comparison? When choosing your biogas tariff, look out for our seal of approval! This guarantees you environmentally friendly biogas and the expansion of renewable energies.
Guaranteed energy transition investments
A fixed amount per kilowatt hour flows into the expansion of renewable energies and into innovative energy transition projects - guaranteed!
Environmentally compatible and resource-saving
Guarantees the use of energetic potentials of biogenic residual and waste materials and the environmentally compatible production of green gases.
Supported by associations for environment, peace & consumers.
Our sponsors represent a broad social base.
Independent certification
Highest environmental standards and demanding criteria.
First seal of approval for green and biogas products
A label for the entire production chain of high-quality green and biogas.
Energy transition projects
Tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Label actively promote the energy transition.
Guaranteed energy transition investments
Investment commitment for a cross-sector energy transition: A fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed is used to implement Energy transition projects In this way, a renewable energy future is actually driven forward - guaranteed.
More than 80 million euros have already been invested in over 1,600 ecologically valuable projects. With a biogas tariff with the Grünes Gas-Label, you support many different projects such as new eco-power plants, future technologies such as storage and smart grids, energy efficiency measures, e-mobility, citizen energy projects, etc.
Environmentally compatible and resource-saving
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY AND RESOURCE-SAVING
Guaranteed ecological, sustainable and energy transition-supporting production: Biogas with the Grünes Gas-Label usually consists of biogenic residues. In this way, biowaste becomes an energy raw material and unnecessary emissions of methane are avoided during conversion.
Decentralized energy generation:Biogas production uses biogas raw materials from the region, such as biowaste from private households, commerce and industry. Residues from agriculture, such as harvest waste, liquid manure and dung, are also turned into biogas. This is not only good for regional value creation,but also reduces dependence on fossil fuels. Biogas can be fed into the public gas grid; it can be stored, planned and controlled..
Together for the energy turnaround
Supported by associations for environment, peace & consumers.
Leading associations from civil society are behind the Grüner Strom-Label and Grünes Gas-Label. They play a key role in shaping the criteria for the labels.
Independent certification
The criteria of the Grünes Gas-Label are checked by us and an independent institute. In addition, the honorary Board of Directors reviews the expert opinions. This ensures that all criteria are assessed objectively.
The certification is based on a detailed catalog of criteria, which was drafted by energy experts and is regularly reviewed and revised by the supporting associations. The Green Gas label provides more transparency and orientation in the biogas market.
First seal of approval for green and biogas products
The Grünes Gas-Label is the first seal ofapproval for biogas and synthetically produced green gases in Germany. The Grünes Gas-Label was founded in 2013 by leading environmental, consumer and peace organizations.
The label is not issued to nuclear power plant operators or opponents of renewable energies. Investments in parent companies and subsidiaries are also included.
Obtain biogas
For a 100 percent renewable energy supply, we also need biogas. The standards of the Grünes Gas-Label ensure that biogas production is ecological, sustainable, and beneficial to the energy transition. The label is only awarded to gas products that contain at least ten percent biogas.
Information material
Your contact person
Together for the energy turnaround
Michelle Markwart
Management Consultant, Online Communication
What you should know about biogas
Grünes Gas-Label
Frequently asked questions
With Green Gas-certified tariffs, guaranteed investments flow into the expansion of renewable energies.
The level of investment is determined by a fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed. Thus, your gas purchase indirectly influences the investments in the energy transition. The areas of support include the mobility transition, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other projects that serve the energy transition, such as nature conservation, development cooperation, and education.
You can find the whole range in the criteria catalog for the Grünes Gas-Label.
Find out which suppliers offer gas tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Labelor contact your supplier and ask about a biogas tariff with the Grünes Gas-Label. Select a labeled tariff and sign the supply contract of the new supplier. The rest is similar to the electricity switch: The new gas supplier cancels the old contract for you at the next possible date and initiates everything else. Until the transfer, the local or previous supplier is obliged to maintain the gas supply. This means that there will be no interruption in supply.
You can find gas tariffs with the Grünes Gas-Label here.
Note: Individual, named biogas tariffs are always certified, not the supplier itself.
The Grünes Gas-Label is the only biogas quality label supported by leading civil society organizations. The supporting associations can be found here.
Through the work of the carrier associations in the board of directors and general meeting, they play a major role in shaping the certification to this day. Changes in the label's criteria, for example, must be approved by all the sponsoring associations.
The Grünes Gas-Label is awarded by Grüner Strom Label e.V., which has been awarding the Grüner Strom-Label for green electricity tariffs since 1998.
Biogas in general
Biogas is produced by the bacterial decomposition of animal or plant substances in a biogas plant. These substances can be, for example, biogenic residues, such as the waste from the organic waste garbage can or liquid manure from agriculture. The fermentation of these substances produces, among other things, biomethane. The resulting biomethane can be used as an energy source in the same way as natural gas and can be fed into the natural gas grid, for example. There are various ways to produce biogas and not all variants are ecologically sustainable.
Substrates, also called feedstocks, are the biogenic raw materials that are introduced into a biogas plant to produce gas. Here, a rough distinction can be made between three classes:
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials or energy crops (e.g., corn or through-grown silphia).
The abbreviation NawaRo stands for the term renewable raw materials.
This refers to plants or plant components that originate from agricultural production and are not used as food or feed, but are used materially or energetically, e.g. for the production of biogas.
Sewage gas is a methane-containing gas produced during wastewater treatment by the digestion of sewage sludge. Sewage gas contains between 45 and 70 percent methane by volume.
As the name suggests, this is gas that is produced artificially. Gas is produced from water in an electricity-intensive process called electrolysis. This concept is called power-to-gas. In this context, people often talk about green hydrogen. Green' here means that hydrogen is produced with the help of green electricity.
A biogas plant usually consists of a fermentation tank with gas storage, the so-called fermenter, as well as a preliminary pit, a secondary fermenter and fermentation residue storage.
The fermenter, the core of a biogas plant, is filled with the substrates (e.g. NawaRo and liquid manure from the preliminary pit). In the fermenter, the actual biogas formation takes place under exclusion of sunlight and oxygen. Depending on the initial substrate, biogas can be produced by wet or dry fermentation (= digestion). In wet fermentation, a high water content in the fermentation substrate makes the mass stirrable and flowable. Dry fermentation or solid-state fermentation is carried out with stackable organic biomass without mixing. However, it is rather rare in Germany.
The substrate is heated to around 35 to 55 degrees Celsius to accelerate the methane formation process. On average, the substrate remains in a fermenter for 30 days before degassing in the secondary fermenter for another month. The resulting biogas consists of 50 to 70 percent methane, plus carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide.
Depending on the end use (on-site power generation, feeding into the natural gas grid, etc.), the biogas is further upgraded. The remaining substrate mixture from the fermenter (digestate) is then reused by farmers as high-quality fertilizer for their fields.
The production of biogas is renewable, largely CO₂-neutral, can be decentralized and occurs independently of limited fossil energy sources. This makes it more environmentally friendly than conventional energy from large-scale power plants. However, biogas production can take place in very different ways from an ecological point of view.
To guarantee a sustainable energy supply, biogas must be produced in an environmentally compatible manner. This includes both the raw materials used and their processing, as well as the logistics of the substrates and the fermentation residues.
The energetic and material use of (anyway accumulating) organic residual and waste materials is part of a sustainable use of resources.
Only certain feedstocks may be used for biogas with the Grünes Gas-Label:
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials (e.g. maize or through-grown silphia), but only if there is an ecologically sustainable operator concept that is conducive to the energy transition.