Stand-Alone Renewable-Energy Generating Device Including Emission Savings Sensor, Retrofit Emissions Savings Sensor for such a Device, and Method

An emission savings sensor, comprising:

• at least one input connector that is adapted to be plugged into the output connector of a stand-alone renewable-energy generating device,
• at least one output connector that is connected to the at least one input connector via at least one electric element, and adapted to be connected to an input connector of a consuming device, and
• a sensor element that is connected to the electric element and adapted to generate an emission savings signal representative of the electric energy transported from the at least one input connector to the at least one output connector,
• a clock device that is adapted to generate a time data representative of at least one of a time and a date specification,
• a memory in which a unique sensor-ID is stored,
• a processor unit that is adapted to time-stamp the emission savings signal by combining it with the time data and adapted to form a savings profile signal, in which the time-stamped energy savings signal and the unique sensor-ID are combined, and
• a communication interface that is adapted to communicate the savings profile signal to a network system.

A method for identifying the energy savings contributions of a stand-alone renewable-energy generating device, the method comprising the steps of:

• automatically measuring, by means of at least one sensor element, electric energy units that are generated by a renewable energy generator device,
• automatically retrieving unique ID data representative of the sensor,
• automatically retrieving time data containing information on at least one of a time and a date when the measuring was performed,
• automatically combining the measured electric energy units, the time data and the ID data to form a savings profile data,
• and communicating the savings profile data to a communication network.

A method for collecting emission savings data representative of the energy generated by stand-alone renewable energy generation devices, the method comprising the steps of:

• maintaining user data of a group of users, the user data of each user comprising:
• unique ID data representative of a sensor element and
• emission savings data representative of a sum of energy units measured by the sensor element that is associated with the at least one ID number;
• automatically collecting, via the communication network, a data set containing:
• a unique ID data representative of a sensor element,
• energy signal data representative of electrical energy units measured by the sensor element, and
• time data representative of the time at which the energy units were measured by the sensor element;
• identifying a user of the group of users by correlating the data set by means of the ID data in the user data and the ID data in the data set;
• adding the energy units in the energy data in the emission savings data of the user identified in the previous step:
• sharing the emission savings data with the group of users.