Green electricity: what is it?

Green electricity is electricity produced from a energy original renewable. This mode of production includes:

Once produced, the electricity is purchased by energy suppliers to be injected into the grid. This purchase is made in the form of Guarantees of Origin (GO), each GO being equivalent to one Megawatt-hour (MWh). This warranty ensures the traceability electricity, namely its mode of production, its date and its country of origin. GOs are recorded in a register managed by Powernext. 55 TWh were thus certified green in 2017, i.e. 10% of total French production.

This system allows suppliers to offer green electricity offers, where your consumption is equivalent to that purchased in GO by the supplier. But beware: no offer can guarantee that the electricity you consume is entirely of renewable origin, since once injected into the network, green electricity is “mixed” with electricity from other types of production. (nuclear, thermal, etc.). The “green” offers only make it possible to contribute to the development ofrenewable energy.

Is green energy really green?

However, some alternative suppliers (Ilek, ekWateur, EnerCoop, etc.) offer to guarantee 100% green electricity by purchasing green electricity directly from producers. To find out if your electricity is green, consult your bill where each supplier is obliged to indicate the share of renewable electricity in its energy mix. In 2017, the share of green electricity in total electricity consumption in France was 18.4%, with a target of 23% in 2020. This means that it is currently impossible to provide every French household with a 100% green offer.