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Before I ask this question I will preface this as having come from my wife who said, and I quote "Why don't you ask STW about this as that demographic will have the answer"....
We* have a desire to look after the planet a bit better** and thus are looking at our electricity and gas provider. Are there any that really do use only renewable energy sources (not Gas obvs), we wondered about Ovo. So any experiences good or bad requested.
*My wife
**no Yurts just trying to do our bit.
We went with Pure Planet after having been with Eon for ..... eons! To date we've had no issues and it's been all very smooth and cheaper!
Edit, also has a £50 referral scheme.
I use Bulb good for the money and have a referral scheme £50 each.
They only buy electric from green sources so good on the environment aspect obviously what is actually supplied to you could be from any source.
Bulb but be careful as their estimate are a little way off, yes they do referrals but don’t post them on the forum. A sneaky PM might help.
We are on a 'green' Ebico account with the house we own at the moment.
Not quite sure about the sense of the whole thing mind - does a finite number of households switching to green only energy sources effect the building of more renewable supplies or the early decommissioning of gas and coal plants? If not I'm assuming all that happens is the standard tariffs have a bit less green in them but the whole system is still the same makeup.
Also in the middle of a windless night at the other end of the country to any hydro we have kicking about if you switch on the kettle it's going to be coming from gas/coal/nuclear regardless of what tariff you are on.
I* need to sleep well thinking my green energy is powering the spa...
*My wife.
Octopus. 100% renewable or offset. £50 referral too ☺️
If you email me jameshatfield at hotmailcouk I have a Which? article summarising green suppliers.
Sustainable energy is the new ‘her-indoors’ joke? Not sure I’m seeing the link...
Wind-power = virtual castration?
Not quite sure about the sense of the whole thing mind – does a finite number of households switching to green only energy sources effect the building of more renewable supplies or the early decommissioning of gas and coal plants? If not I’m assuming all that happens is the standard tariffs have a bit less green in them but the whole system is still the same makeup.
To an extent, yes. But it creates competition for the green sources (and customers). If enough people want a green source of energy it pushes the price up, which ultimately leads to more being built.
Similarly if enough people leave "the big 6" and move to green suppliers they have to do something to win them back (e.g. be green as well).
So yes while they don't go out and plant a 5kw wind turbine on some remote western hillside for your benefit. The cumulative effect is that more wind farms get built.
Also in the middle of a windless night at the other end of the country to any hydro we have kicking about if you switch on the kettle it’s going to be coming from gas/coal/nuclear regardless of what tariff you are on.
Well kinda, and actually electrons travel really slowly and it's AC so in reality no electricity from any power station every really reaches you except by a sort of diffusion over a very long period of time.
And on a less technical level, they also use offsetting, so they can always buy from gas fired sources + plant a tree.
We’re using very little coal power.
But, right now, 20% nuke and 50% gas.
We went with Pure Planet
Huh. I've literally just applied to switch to PP, like ten minutes ago. Good to hear an endorsement.
https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub
We are with Tonik, gas and elec come out of the pipes, seems fine
We're with Good Energy, seem fine, customer service is good
But, right now, 20% nuke and 50% gas.
Correct.
Are there any that really do use only renewable energy sources (not Gas obvs)
Ecotricity produce as much renewable electricity as they sell. They now do the same thing with biogas, so yes there is renewable gas, and you can now get gas and leccy from the same green provider. We switched, they were really good, it was painless.
I'm with Tonik too, 2nd year with them and touch wood(pun intended) has all been good.
They have a few different green Tariffs available:-
https://www.tonikenergy.com/about/our-green-energy/
and as others have mentioned referrals are available.
Another Tonik customer here.
"all our tariffs include 100% renewable electricity as standard. You can then choose to include 10% green gas and we also offer the option to offset the carbon of the remaining 90% gas from fossil fuels."
Referral available, as others have offered.
Are there any that really do use only renewable energy sources (not Gas obvs), we wondered about Ovo. So any experiences good or bad requested.
Well we all get our power from the same grid which uses whatever is available at the time, so unless you go off grid or get a dedicated connection to a wind farm you'll be using Nuclear, coal, gas etc like everyone else.
The Green virtual suppliers just *only* pay for green fuel, which isn't quite the same. Given that most of the big users, eg industry, will use anything; even if everyone signed up to only *pay* for green fuel, I doubt it would put any non green generators out of business. So I'm not really sure if it achieves anything...
Obviously as renewables get cheaper they will out compete non renewables and that is what will make the power mix change over time.
Bristol Energy are 100% renewable for electricity and 15% renewable for gas.
Pure planet seem very good so far, joined them last month. If you join through MSE you get a good deal at the moment and if you get a referral, you can both get £25 in Amazon vouchers (although I don't know if you can do both): [Blatant plug removed, referral links aren't permitted] 😉😉😁😁
So I’m not really sure if it achieves anything…
Course it does. It means that the money you pay for your leccy bill goes towards investing in renewable energy. This is a good thing, no?
We get ours from (I think) a big 6 supplier on a 100% renewable energy plan. Which, I suspect, means we pay a bit more than other folks but prolly take energy from coal, nuke, etc.
Check whether they are as “green” as they claim - a lot of them (including most of those mentioned above) are buying REGO certificates for a few quid so they can claim their source is renewables when in fact it’s not.
Course it does. It means that the money you pay for your leccy bill goes towards investing in renewable energy. This is a good thing, no?
But that energy would be paid for regardless by other users on the grid. You're not putting extra money into the system, just ring fencing a tiny proportion and giving it to a green generator. They can only sell so much capacity, and they sell 100% anyway, so it doesn't increase overall revenues or overall investment.
AIUI the whole system is staggeringly complex. Suppliers dump electricity into the grid getting paid the spot price at the time. Some get extra money for startup / standby capacity. Those with switchable capacity eg gas turbines will change their supply based on spot price eg EON can switch between supplying gas to the gas grid or diverting their gas to gas turbines and supplying electricity to the electric grid. Wind / Solar can't switch on/off so just supply and get paid the spot price. Everything goes in one big grid to which everyone is connected, so we all get the same mix regardless of what we paid for. Then on top of all this you have the billing companies who don't control anything but buy gas/leccy from the grid / suppliers and collect revenue from the domestic customers and hope to make a profit along the way.
All a bit vague and poss out of date, I used to date someone who looked after a gas turbine network. Not many women has posters of Trent 1000 engines up in their house.
But that energy would be paid for regardless by other users on the grid. You’re not putting extra money into the system, just ring fencing a tiny proportion and giving it to a green generator. They can only sell so much capacity, and they sell 100% anyway, so it doesn’t increase overall revenues or overall investment.
Ecotricity invest in generation, as do other green providers. So by paying them, you are investing in renewables.
Everything goes in one big grid to which everyone is connected, so we all get the same mix regardless of what we paid for.
Of course we all get the same mix, but by paying for companies who invest in renewables you are changing the mix. Selling 'green energy' doesn't make any sense if you aren't somehow investing in producing it, but they are. From Ecotricity website:
Our electricity is 100% green – made from the wind and the sun. We make around a fifth of it ourselves from our fleet of windmills and sunmills – the rest we buy from other green generators.
So even that which they don't make themselves they are buying from other people who do, so still funding it with your money.
Just reading up again on their gas btw - they are not at 100% renewable yet, but building more capacity.
Wasn't there a report (from Which?) recently that checked out "green" energy companies credentials? IIRC only two were actually "green" and bought or made green energy instead of just buying credits and trading..
Here's a link from the Indy, but I havent' found the Which? source yet.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/renewable-energy-suppliers-green-electricity-which-research-a9123566.htmlWhether you mind the finer details of buying credits vs. buying from a supplier, I like that my Ecotricity payments go back in to actually building some infrastructure.
Ecotricity invest in generation, as do other green providers. So by paying them, you are investing in renewables.
I'm still not convinced in the economics I'm afraid. The margin between price domestic users pay and the supply cost is very thin (a few %), so the actual money left over to invest in new generation would be negligible. The thin margin is why so many suppliers go bust, if the prices rise and you've got customers on fixed price contracts you either need deep pockets or you fold.
AIUI new generation is bid for on the open market with the government for large supply contracts with guaranteed costs per mWHour. Renewables are now very cost competitive and hence can bid a lower MWHour price. The actual investments would come from investment funds who up front the cost of the wind farm / gas turbine etc and then make their payback from the guarenteed unit energy cost they bid for over the lifetime of the project.
I'm not anti-renewables I'm just not convinced that paying for a Green tariff actually makes any real difference. The falling cost of renewable generation, mainly thanks to larger wind turbines, is however making a significant difference.
It's a bit like feeling good about recycling by diligently washing all your plastic and sticking it in the recycling bin. Only 45% ends up in landfill, 50% gets 'recycled' by being exported to Asia and then burnt or dumped in the sea. Less than 1% actually gets reycycled into something else..
We use Ecotricity for our electricity and gas.