The sales of ecolabelled electricity has accelerated remarkably in Nordic coutries, also in Finland

In Finland sales of Norppa-labelled electricity has risen up to 430 GWh/a during last year, which is almost four times more than in the year 2003. The number of private homes buying eco-labelled electricity last year was over 200 000 (in the year before only under 5 000 households). Also the amounth of the labelled electricity in the market rose up to 2 000 gigawatthours in Finland. The most important reason to all this was the Nordic company Fortum investing in eco- labelled electricity in Sweden and Finland.

In Finland, the eco-labelling of energy has a small but important role. The impact of energy eco-labelling has so far been mostly a way to provide information to the consumers, who do not know or have never even thought about where the electricity they use comes from.

"At least we have managed to raise discussion about the consequenses of electricity consumption that is connected to the exploitation of natural resourses in Finland or elsewhere, pollution and nuclear waste production etc. Although the sales of eco-labelled electricity has been rather modest so far, the launch of this kind of thing has already broadened the discussion and persuaded energy companies to widen their list of electricity products they provide to their customers," says Sirkka Tepponen, coordinator on ecolabelling of energy at FANC.

Companies selling eco-labelled electricity in Finland are Ekosähkö, Energiapolar, E.ON Finland, Etelä-Savon Energia, Graninge Energia, Fortum Markets, Haminan Energia, Imatran Seudun Sähkö, Joutsenon Energia, Kokkolan Energia, Kotkan Energia, Outokummun Energia, Parikkalan Valo, Pohjois-Karjalan Sähkö, Porvoon Energia, VVO Sähkö, Vaasan Sähkö and Vattenfall.

Further information:

• Sirkka Tepponen, coordinator on ecolabelling of energy, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, tel. +358-9-228 08 213, E-mail: ekoenergia@sll.fi, website: http://www.ekoenergia.info