What electricity comes out of my socket?
Everyone can influence the electricity consumption and the quality of the energy produced. Even if a green electricity tariff does not directly mean that only green electricity comes from one's own socket, the Stromsee model clearly shows the effect that switching from conventional electricity to green electricity entails. The lake, in which the electricity of all households is located, is still quite gray. But it is becoming greener and greener with each new green electricity tariff and is thus significantly driving the energy transition.
The question of whether consumers with a green electricity tariff really receive 100 percent green electricity in their homes is often discussed. However, this cannot be implemented directly, after all, there is no separate, separate power grid just for renewable energies. In practice, all consumers obtain their electricity from the same source, the interconnected grid, into which all energy producers feed their electricity. It does not matter whether green electricity is produced near the place of residence by a solar or wind farm or conventional electricity by fossil fuels, for example. The electricity that comes out of the socket at home is always an electricity mix of renewable and conventional energy sources that flow together in the interconnected grid. The only exception is the direct electricity generated by a photovoltaic system from one's own roof.
However, it is wrong to conclude from this that switching to green electricity does not help. Quite the opposite, as the Stromsee model shows.
How does the Stromsee model work?
The so-called Stromsee is of course not a real lake, but a metaphor for the European interconnected grid, into which electricity producers constantly feed the energy generated. This is particularly important, because so far there is no way to store the electricity in sufficient quantities over a longer period of time. Green energy from renewable sources such as hydropower, wind power, solar energy or biomass flows into the Stromsee, but also grey electricity from fossil fuels such as coal and oil or, in some places, even electricity from nuclear power.
As soon as a consumer uses energy from the Stromsee, new energy flows in immediately. In this way, the level of the lake always remains the same, at the grid frequency of 50 Hertz. This allows private or industrial consumers to extract the required amount of electricity at any time without bottlenecks. The more consumers Green energy the more the expansion of renewable energies will be driven forward and more electricity will be generated from renewable sources. This then flows into the Stromsee. The share of green electricity is therefore increasing and is slowly but surely displacing environmentally harmful grey electricity. A corresponding energy concept of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action envisages that by 2050 the share of green electricity in the Stromsee will be 80 percent.
How high is the share of renewables in the electricity mix currently?
According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, the share of renewable energies in net electricity generation reached 45.7 percent in 2021. A slight decline compared to the previous year: in 2020, green electricity had exceeded the share of grey electricity for the first time at 50.5 percent. The decline can be explained, among other things, by the fact that the wind blew less strongly in 2021. Nevertheless, wind power is still the most important energy source among renewables with a share of 23 percent, followed by solar energy with 9.9 percent, biomass with 8.8 percent and hydropower with 4 percent. Researchers see enormous potential, especially in solar energy, as a Current study on the expansion of solar energy on roofs displays.
Which energy sources are in my electricity mix?
Every electricity provider is obliged to show every year exactly how its electricity mix is composed. In this way, consumers can see exactly which energy sources are used and how green the electricity tariff they purchase really is. Incidentally, information is provided not only about the type of energy, but also about the CO₂ emissions and the proportion of radioactive waste when using nuclear power. enercity, for example, encloses this information with its annual accounts for customers. In addition, information on the electricity mix is also published on the website of the respective tariff.
Good to know: The electricity mix in the Stromsee and the electricity mix of the individual providers are not identical. While the values from the Stromsee are available at the end of each consumption year and refer to the total energy of all suppliers, the statistical evaluation of the electricity mix of the individual producers is not published until November of the following year.