Green electricity is becoming increasingly popular
Green electricity is on the rise: In 2015, energy customers ordered 11.3 terawatt hours of green electricity products. This corresponds to around 20% of the electricity sold in Switzerland.
Around 25 percent of all Swiss households and 13 percent of companies actively opted for an electricity product from renewable energies or a naturemade star certified green electricity product in 2015. Together, these customers purchased a total of 11.3 terawatt hours of electricity in 2015, which corresponds to around 20 percent of total electricity consumption in Switzerland.
Demand for electricity products from renewable energies has increased steadily in recent years. In 2015, six percent more end customers opted for one compared with the previous year.
The market survey conducted by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the Association for Environmentally Sound Energy VUE looks at the active actions of electricity customers. Therefore, electricity volumes sold via green default products without opting out are not included in the survey. This is because these customers receive electricity from 100 percent renewable energy as a default product without the option to choose and cannot switch to a (partially) non-renewable energy product.
Water products and mix products most in demand
The frontrunners in terms of orders are pure water products and mix products - around 99 percent of the energy actively ordered is sold via such products. Pure water products have steadily increased in importance in recent years. This is also reflected in the figures for electricity production: According to the 2014 electricity indicator1 , 91 percent of the renewable electricity produced in Switzerland was generated in hydropower plants.
naturemade seal of quality as an important sales argument
At Mixprodukte, naturemade certification plays a central role. 57 percent of the electricity sold through Mixproducts is naturemade basic certified, 11 percent bears the naturemade star seal of approval - the strictest seal of approval for green electricity in Europe.
Distribution among more and more electricity suppliers
A total of 380 out of 645 electricity suppliers offered an electricity product from renewable energies in 2015. The ever-growing sales volume has been continuously distributed among more and more market participants in recent years. While three suppliers were responsible for 85 percent of sales in 2008, 80 percent of renewable electricity products were sold via the 10 largest suppliers in 2015.
Source: Association for Environmentally Sound Energy VUE
