Leading provider of solar energy solutions in Ecuador, DeltaGlobal S.A is now a licensee of EKOenergy. This means Delta Global S.A is able to offer solutions to energy consumers who want to go the extra mile by choosing EKOenergy-labelled renewable electricity.

As a new service, DeltaGlobal S.A started helping owners of on-site solar installations fulfil EKOenergy's criteria and guide them to communicate using the EKOenergy logo. Universidad Ecotec in Guayaquil is the first consumer to get EKOenergy through DeltaGlobal. The installation will be completed in the coming months and this will be the largest installation for on-site consumption in Ecuador. Congratulations to all those involved!

As an ecolabel for renewable energy, EKOenergy can be combined with all possible methods of renewable energy procurement: Green tariffs, PPAs, unbundled purchase of EACs, on-site production and others.
 

- From a recent video on our YouTube channel, EKOenergia: o rótulo ecológico global para energías renováveis (in Portugese)

Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY is the largest consumer using the EKOenergy ecolabel for their own production. HSY's choice for 100% EKOenergy enables them to show that their consumption fulfils additional sustainability criteria and supports the energy transition outside Finland.

Through our Climate Fund, HSY also helps finance new renewable energy projects with a direct positive impact. HSY's contributions to EKOenergy's Climate Fund for the past year have been used to finance a solar energy project, which was executed by a local partner of the Siemenpuu Foundation.

The project, taking place in the surroundings of Bamako, promotes the introduction of solar energy in farming, particularly for irrigation purposes. Just like other Climate Fund projects we finance, this installation addresses several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The direct beneficiaries of the project are about 300 women and girls. See more information about the project (in Finnish).

- Mike Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition & Solutions.

We granted 25,000 € via our Climate Fund to a project implemented by Practical Action in the La Paz area of Bolivia.

55% of the population in the project area is food insecure and there is widespread, chronic malnutrition. This project will benefit 300 students in two schools which currently lack hot water and can't serve nutritionally sufficient school meals.

With the financial support of EKOenergy, Practical Action aims to show the benefits that can come from the introduction of solar energy. Solar boilers will bring hot water to the sanitary facilities and solar PV has the potential to increase the yield of the school garden. Solar energy will make growing crops inside solar tents and using a mobile water sprinkler system to irrigate the garden possible.

You can find more information about Practical Action's energy-related work in Bolivia on their website.

Here are a few things we have been working on recently:
 

Follow us on social media for regular updates, or get in touch with us to learn more about our work!

- Feasibility of coal in the age of renewable energy: Hunutlu thermal power plant case, p.15

Thanks to the demand for EKOenergy-labelled, sustainable hydropower, we granted 15,000 € to an urban river restoration project of Virho (Finnish Society for Stream Conservation) in Karkkila, Finland.

The town of Karkkila has a long industrial history and the local river has been completely surrounded by factory buildings and parks. The river looks more like a degraded channel than a healthy river. However, there is still a long and canalized rapid, where the water quality is rather good.

With this new project, Virho and their local partners will restore a large part of the riverbed there.

See other river restoration projects we have previously financed and stay tuned to learn more about the river restoration in Karkkila.

We are a partner association of the Corporate Energy Series conference this year too. CES 2021 takes place virtually on 8 and 9 March.

The two-day event provides an opportunity to hear about practical strategies and cutting edge insights on corporate PPAs, EACs, on-site generation, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, 24/7 energy supply, hydrogen, regulatory updates, business strategies and more!

Merve Güngör from the EKOenergy Secretariat will moderate the "Achieving 100% renewable energy beyond borders" session. For more information and registration, see the conference website.

Mark Carney, who was the Bank of England governor up until last year, is now the United Nations envoy for climate action and finance.

In a recent interview, he explained that while there were parallels between the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, damage to the environment and ecosystems has the potential to cause many more deaths:

"One of the biggest issues is you cannot self-isolate from climate. We cannot retreat in and wait out climate change, it will just get worse [...] When you look at climate change from a human mortality perspective, it will be the equivalent of a coronavirus crisis every year from the middle of this century, and every year, not just a one-off event. So it is an issue that needs to be addressed now."

"But governments pouring trillions of dollars into stimulus plans to rescue their ailing economies are mainly addressing job losses and the economic damage inflicted from lockdowns. Too little of that cash is heading towards reducing carbon emissions." Text copied from an article by Sharanjit Leyl, BBC News, 6 February