Green electricity for businesses

What does green electricity mean for businesses in practice?

• Definition: Green electricity (renewable electricity) is electricity produced from naturally replenished sources, including wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower. In a business context, green electricity for businesses is primarily about documentation: You can demonstrate that your consumption is "offset" by renewable production, even though the electricity in the grid is always a mix of several forms of production.
• Important nuance: It is not physically possible to distinguish electrons in the electricity grid according to their origin. Therefore, green electricity for businesses is based in practice on documentability and traceability – not on the electricity in the socket always being 100% renewable.
• Practical implications for you: When you want to say something about "electricity from renewable energy," it is not enough to choose a product name from an electricity supplier. You should be able to point to the specific documentation mechanism, the period it covers, and how it is allocated to your consumption. This makes it easier to stand by your statements internally (management, purchasing, compliance) and externally (customers, auditors, authorities).

Green electricity for businesses in Denmark: status and key figures

Denmark's electricity sector has become significantly greener. In 2024, 59% of Denmark's electricity production came from wind and 11% from solar. Wind turbines and solar cells produced a record 24.3 TWh of green electricity in 2024. At the same time, the CO2 content of Danish electricity consumption has fallen significantly over time, and emissions from an average kWh consumed in Danish power outlets were 93 grams of CO2 per kWh in 2024.

• Market context: Electricity consumption in Denmark was 38.4 TWh in 2024 (an increase of 6% from 2023), and projections point to rising electricity consumption in line with the electrification of transport, heating, and industry. This increases the need for more renewable production and for solutions that can handle variations in production and prices.
• What this means for the decision: When wind and solar production fluctuates, electricity prices often follow suit. This pushes green electricity for businesses from being purely a purchasing issue to also being a matter of management and planning: When do you use electricity, how flexible are your processes, and how robust is your documentation if you want to link purchasing with ESG reporting?

Documentation for green electricity for businesses: how it all fits together

• Guarantees of origin: The central mechanism for documenting green electricity for businesses is guarantees of origin (certificates). A guarantee of origin documents precisely 1 MWh of electricity produced from renewable energy and is valid for 12 months. Energinet issues guarantees of origin monthly for renewable electricity, and the system is anchored in European standards (EECS) via AIB.
• Traceability and internal control: To avoid double counting and to be ready for internal/external audits, you should agree with the supplier how guarantees are allocated to your consumption (typically monthly or annually). Supporting documents should be stored systematically, and there should be internal quality assurance before documentation is used in external communication.
• How to make documentation operational: Think of documentation as a fixed flow, not as something that is collected "at the end." Clarify early on who owns the process (purchasing, energy manager, finance, or ESG), how often you reconcile consumption against guarantees, and what file or system structure is used for attachments. Once this has been agreed, you reduce the risk of an otherwise correct solution becoming difficult to explain in an audit or in a customer inquiry.

Purchasing green electricity for businesses: the most commonly used models

There are several ways to obtain green electricity for businesses. The choice depends on your risk profile, time horizon, consumption pattern, and documentation requirements. The most important thing is that the model fits your decision-making criteria: procurement security, internal governance, customer requirements, and the way you report ESG.

Before choosing a model, it can be helpful to clarify three specific questions: What period should the documentation cover, how detailed should it be (e.g., monthly), and who should be able to check it (internally and externally)? Once the parameters are clear, it becomes easier to choose a model that works in practice.

Green electricity for businesses via electricity suppliers with guarantees of origin

• Model: You purchase an electrical product where the supplier can document its renewable origin via guarantees of origin. This requires that the contract and documentation flow are clearly defined (category, scope, and period).
• You should include the following in the agreement: To avoid misunderstandings, the contract and your internal memo should specify exactly what is being delivered (electricity product and documentation), when the guarantees are issued and canceled, and how they are linked to your consumption. It is also relevant to clarify whether the allocation is done on an ongoing basis or collectively, and how you can access supporting documents for auditing purposes.

PPA as a model for green electricity for businesses

• Long horizon: PPAs make it possible to purchase electricity directly from a producer at a fixed price for a long period of time, typically 10 years or more. A newer variant is "Timematch," where billing can be based on actual consumption down to the hour instead of a fixed monthly amount.
• Practical considerations: A long contract period can provide predictability, but also requires internal clarification: Who can commit the company for a long period, and how do you handle changes in consumption, locations, or operating patterns? Timematch may also require you to handle data and reconciliation at a more detailed level. This makes it important to ensure that measurement data, reporting, and responsibility are clearly assigned within the organization.

Energy communities and green electricity for businesses in local practice

Shared local production: Energy communities are open and voluntary associations in which citizens, businesses, and/or public actors produce, share, and use local renewable energy via the collective electricity grid. Surpluses can be stored in jointly owned batteries or fed into the electricity grid. The model can help to integrate more renewable energy into existing grids and reduce the need for grid expansion through better co-location of consumption and production.

How to assess suitability: Start by clarifying whether your consumption pattern matches local production and how roles and responsibilities are distributed within the community. For you as a company, it is particularly important to have control over how documentation is handled and how decisions are made if operating conditions or needs change. This provides peace of mind when the solution has to stand the test of time in both operation and reporting.

In-house production of green electricity for businesses: solar cells and stable operation

• Control and planning: In-house production – especially solar cells on the company's property – can reduce purchased electricity and provide more control. A good starting point is to map consumption, areas, and grid conditions before choosing technology and size. It is also important to clarify billing rules and grid capacity early on to prevent project delays.
• Practical approach: Make it concrete by starting with your load profile: When during the day does consumption occur, and how stable is it? Compare this with the expected production from solar cells and consider which operating processes can be planned more intelligently. The sooner you map out where your own production can actually replace purchased electricity, the better you can dimension the system and handle grid conditions.
• New framework from 2025: From 2025, the availability tariff for solar cell systems above 50 kW disappeared and was replaced by power payment. Power payment means a fixed annual amount per kW of solar cell system above 10 kW. This changes the economic calculation and makes it relevant to assess the size of the plant and grid conditions early in the process.
• What this means in practice: When payment is more closely linked to power and plant size, it becomes even more important to ensure that the size suits your needs and the actual conditions at the location. This is typically where many projects gain or lose value: not in the technology itself, but in dimensioning, network dialogue, and aligning expectations regarding operation.
• Depreciation: Solar cells for commercial use can be depreciated as operating assets or installations depending on the type of installation (typically operating assets on roofs; installations on the ground or integrated into roofs). Operating assets can be depreciated by up to 25% annually (balance depreciation), or by up to 15% annually for capacities above 1 MW.
• Internal cooperation: Depreciation rules and technical design are often closely linked. It therefore makes sense for finance, operations, and project managers to agree early on the installation principle, expected service life in your investment model, and documentation requirements. This reduces the risk of the project having to be redesigned late in the process because the assumptions were not the same across functions.

Economy and electricity prices: why green electricity for businesses must be actively managed

Electricity prices are volatile and are influenced by factors such as weather, renewable capacity, and international market conditions. In 2025, there were periods of low and sometimes negative electricity prices, followed by shorter periods of higher prices, especially in winter. The average spot price in December 2025 was 61 øre per kWh – and this was also the average for the whole of 2025.

• How to turn price fluctuations into action: Green electricity for businesses is most robust when procurement and operations work together. This may mean planning energy-intensive processes when prices are typically lower and following up on deviations: Was there a production that could not be moved, or was it a management issue? Even small adjustments to routines and follow-up can make it easier to manage risk without changing your core production.
• 2026–2027: From January 1, 2026, the electricity tax was reduced from 90 øre per kWh to 1 øre per kWh for the whole of 2026 and 2027. This means that the actual price of electricity will account for a larger proportion of the bill, making it even more important to keep track of when electricity is used.

Practical implications for financial management: When a larger portion of the bill is based on spot prices, monitoring consumption times becomes more valuable. This argues for having a fixed, simple setup: a rhythm for reviewing electricity bills and consumption data, clear responsibilities, and a method for documenting changes. It also makes it easier to explain developments internally if electricity costs fluctuate between months.

Rules and communication: green electricity for businesses without greenwashing

Labeling scheme repealed: On September 1, 2024, the Consumer Ombudsman repealed the guidelines for electricity trading companies' use of climate-related statements and the associated labeling scheme. After this date, it was no longer possible to use the "green leaves" in marketing, and they had to be removed.

Tightening from September 27, 2026: From this date, it will always be misleading to use generic statements such as "green" and "climate-friendly" if you cannot demonstrate recognized excellent environmental performance. However, it may still be legal to market electricity products as "electricity based on renewable energy," "wind turbine electricity," "electricity from solar energy," or "electricity product based on guarantees of origin from wind, solar, etc."—provided that the statements can be documented with relevant guarantees of origin.

How to communicate confidently: In practice, your statements should always reflect the documentation you actually have. Therefore, choose wording that can be "supported by evidence" and stick to specific descriptions of energy sources, periods, and mechanisms (e.g., guarantees of origin). A useful internal principle is that any claim must be able to be answered with: "Which documentation shows this, and for what period?" This makes your communication more precise and less vulnerable.

ESG and CSRD: green electricity for businesses as a documentation task

The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is being phased in gradually and requires more detailed and standardized ESG reporting. Companies with more than 500 employees, listed companies, parts of the financial sector, and state-owned companies must report from 2024. Other companies are gradually or indirectly covered by requirements in the value chain.

• Consequence: Green electricity for businesses must be robustly documented. It is also pointed out that future recommendations under the GHG Protocol may tighten the requirements, so that documentation may have to be more detailed, including hour by hour.
• Practical preparation: Regardless of whether you are directly affected or encounter requirements via customers, it is advantageous to think ahead in your data trail. Ensure that you can explain the connection between consumption, purchasing model, and documentation without having to "translate" it every time. This could be done, for example, by having a short, fixed note about your method, a responsibility matrix, and a simple process for how documentation is checked before it is included in reporting or sales material.