Why YOU should switch to using Ecotricity
Green issues seem to be rising ever higher up the political and media agenda. There's good words being spoken by all sorts of people, government initiatives, the possibility of more international agreements, etc etc. Basically, most people now accept that global warming is a problem and that we need to do something about it (although this acceptance is by no means a given). The question, as ever, is what?
There's a worrying new threat of new nuclear build (which I've already
For consumers, 'switching' to green electricity is often billed as being a positive way to contribute towards combatting climate change. This is true, but it's not enough to absolve you of any responsibility and doesn't mean you've 'done your bit' and needn't worry any more. Switching to green electricity also requires more thought than simply plumping for the first supplier to drop green-coloured pamphlets through your door.
The types of companies offering green electricity are broadly split into two types: big, traditionally oil-based companies (like EDF, NPower, etc) and small, independent companies. The government's Renewables Obligation means that every electricity supplier must source a specific percentage of their energy from renewable sources. The current target is 5.5% for 2005/06. If the supplier fails to meet this target, they can either buy credits from a supplier who exceeded the target (in a pusodo marketplace), or pay a 'buy-out' fine at the set price of 30/megawatt hour (see how the obligation works).
This means that all big electricity supplier companies are already obligated to source some green energy. These companies often offer a 100% renewables energy tarriff, often at a small premium - so customers on these tarriffs are doing little more than helping the company pay for what it already is obliged to do. What's more, should the percentage of customers on the green energy tarriff rise above the obligated percentage, the company would be free to additionally sell these credits to other companies. As Friends of the Earth originally pointed out, this effectively allows companies to sell the same electricity twice (once to a customer, once to another company).
What's more, most of the renewable energy that companies use to fulfil their obligations comes from pre-existing sources. In particular, 'co-firing of biomass' (the mixing of fossil fuel with biomass fuel) is eligible until 31 March 2009 'with no minimum percentage of energy crops' (source). This means that even mixing just 1% of biomass (eg olive oil) with 99% fossil fuel, is enough to be included within the obligation. Additionally, in 2002 a change was made allowing hydoelectric dams that generate more than 20 megawatts to be eligible, if commissioned post April 1st 2002. An article in the Ecologist (Green Electricity - are you being conned? [pdf]) claims that this change followed fierce lobbying by energy companies, who ended up only needing to refurbish old dams. The article also alleges that some dams whose capacity exceeds 20 megawatts 'were allowed to split themselves into two' to avoit the limit.
With all this confusion, it's no wonder that Friends of the Earth decided to stop putting resources into compiling an energy league table, instead calling on Ofgem to take on this role as the industry regulator intsead (support this action).
There are, however, a couple of small independent companies offering green energy tariffs that you can turn to instead. The three are: Green Energy UK, Good Energy and Ecotricity.
Green Energy is unique in that it indeeds to be 50% owned by customers, giving away free company shares the first 100,000 customers. It offers two tariffs, one charged at competitive rates offering to supply you with 10% more green energy than the Renewables Obligations specifies (ie 15% for 2005/6), and one charged at a premium offering 100% green energy.
Good Energy claims to be the 'only company to supply nothing but 100% renewable electricity', but this isn't the most important thing. It holds onto an additional 10% of the Renewables Certificates above the obligated amount (equivilent to the Green Energy 10 tariff above) and then trades the rest, in order to keep the premium down.
Ecotricity is another small company, which is unique in actively building and owning new wind turbines. Privately owned by Dale Vince OBE (a vegan, ex-peace campaigner, ex-traveller, non-tv-owning hippy - see Guardian interview), it has no shareholders to answer to, and re-invests its profits into new wind turbines. The company has built wind parks across the UK, including by Ford Dagenham in London, and is planning several more, including at Manchester City football statium (press release).
Concerned by the confusion surrounding green energy tariffs, Ecotricity recently launched the WhichGreen campaign, comparing the amount of money per customer that electricity suppliers invested into green electricity in 2004. Their figures show that Ecotricity invested an incredible 901.64 per customer, compared 9.58 for Powergen, and 0.00 for Green Energy and Good Energy above, both of which are said to be using 'old green' energy sources. Admittedly, these figures do originate from Ecotricity, and so can't be taken too seriously (they are perhaps also fudged by the fact that Ecotricity has a high proportion of business customers), but they do clearly show that Ecotricity is making real investments into green energy ( 7 million in 2005 by their own figures). Unlike the other green tariffs, Ecotricity only promises to supply 10% of your electricity from green sources in the first year, rising 10% per year. This helps them to scale more easily.
In conclusion, switching to any of the three green suppliers above is a positive step, and is far better than being fooled by the wonderful green advertising that BP is currently pushing. However, on balance, Ecotricity seem to be actually doing more, by installing modern effecient wind turbines. Plus they are planting a forest.
So - new year's resolution for you all. Take the time to switch to Ecotricity (I did). They charge the same as your regional supplier, and so there's no excuse not to.
P.S - for my next eco blog post, I want to investigate how much energy TVs really use up in standby - and ask whether it's the small things or the big things that count...