How green is your energy tariff?

JKenH

Apologies if this has been done before. Yesterday I was approached by my FiT provider Good Energy with details of their electricity supply tariff. It was more expensive than my current provider Bulb and I provided feedback to that effect.

I received an email from Good Energy this morning which said

Most Renewable suppliers out in the market don’t source their energy the way we do. We work directly with our Generators through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), it’s where 100% of our Electricity comes from, and pay our Generators a fair price for this too. Unfortunately we live in a world where it costs a little more to be green in comparison with other suppliers.

Other suppliers such as Bulb purchase some of their energy from Generators (only about 20% according Which’s findings - https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/09/how-green-is-your-energy-tariff/), and cover any shortfalls from the Wholesale market. Unfortunately purchasing energy this way, means that they cannot guarantee that the energy is renewable. They openly admit to purchasing Certificates for this energy, meaning that what appears Renewable, isn’t always true.



Here is the link to the Which? article

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/09/how-green-is-your-energy-tariff/

mmmmikey

This is worth a read and presents what seems to me to be a reasonably balanced view:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/do-green-energy-tariffs-make-difference

My objection to green tariffs stems from the fact that I believe that the benefits to the environment are overstated, with consumers lead to believe that in some way they are making an immediate difference to greenhouse gas emissions. In practice, in the short term, opting for a green tariff makes hardly any difference. All you are doing in the short term is putting your name against some of the RE already generated, with the direct effect that someone else uses the non-RE electricity. All this is completely arbritary and makes no difference to what is generated. Some of the tariff providers do invest in green generation directly but the level of this investment is small.

The problem as I perceive it is that well meaning people are being duped into thinking that they are making a signifciant and worthwhile contribution to CO2 reduction whereas in practice they are making very little difference. This is reducing the incentive to do something more meaningful such as investing in solar panels, or something much simpler like insulating the loft. If I'm only wasting RE electricty does it matter?

couriervanman

Don't know how green mine is but its the cheapest

Reed_Richards

couriervanman wrote: »

.... its the cheapest

...in your area at the time you signed-up? Some electricity supply companies bring out new tariffs very frequently and what is nominally the same tariff can be quite different from one area to another, both in unit rate and standing charge.

pile-o-stone

I'm with Pure Planet. 100% Renewable Electricity and 100% carbon offset gas.


Unit rates for me are, Electricity 13.86 p/kWh & gas 3.0135 p/kWh.

1961Nick

I've no objection to 'green' energy tariffs in principle, but what I do object to is all the marketing hype that goes with them which is mainly BS. A 'non green' industry just wouldn't get away with this sort of nonsense advertising.

The optimist in me says that when demand for green energy eventually reaches supply, generators will have to add RE capacity rather than just re-allocating distribution.

The realist says that as soon as generations can't provide enough 'green' certificates to meet demand, these so called green tariffs will become expensive & probably be withdrawn because the uptake is too low. Limiting the number of tariffs a supplier can offer increases that probability.

joefizz

1961Nick wrote: »

The realist says that as soon as generations can't provide enough 'green' certificates to meet demand, these so called green tariffs will become expensive & probably be withdrawn because the uptake is too low. Limiting the number of tariffs a supplier can offer increases that probability.

Happened over here. Was with Airtricity from when it first started. It wasnt the cheapest but had their own wind farms and was limited to a certain number of consumers at 100% renewables. Bought out by SSE and went mainstream so just taking the same mix now as everyone else. I then moved to the cheapest.

I think they are still 100% renewables in ROI though.

Zarch

What makes Octopus Energy so very green?

https://octopus.energy/blog/greenwashing/

An interesting read I posted on the green news thread the other week.

mmmmikey

Ofgem sponsored research on green tariffs, a few years old but worth a read....



https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/88451/gtmessagingsummaryfinal-pdf

1961Nick

Zarch wrote: »

What makes Octopus Energy so very green?

https://octopus.energy/blog/greenwashing/

An interesting read I posted on the green news thread the other week.

Octopus do seem to be one of the few companies that actually add RE capacity rather than relying on certificates &/or questionable offsetting.

mmmmikey

pile-o-stone wrote: »

I'm with Pure Planet. 100% Renewable Electricity

Hi, please forgive me if I sound like I'm picking on you or being clever, but what is your understanding of the impact your decision to choose this tariff has on CO2 emissions and/or the environment? It might sound like a question with an obvious answer, but my understanding is that when you look into it the answer isn't as obvious as I believe many people (possibly including yourself) think. I would genuinely be interested to hear your answer to this, thanks, Mike.