How to get 100% renewable electricity for your home or office
Sustainability, Business
Switching to a green electricity tariff regularly makes those lists of ten things you can do to save the planet. So what’s involved? Here’s our guide to 100% renewable electricity tariffs.
Wind turbine photo by g-hat
What is 100% renewable electricity?
Buying 100% renewable electricity means you get power that’s generated only from sources like wind, solar, waves, tides or even biomass — and not from coal, gas or oil. Of course, the national grid means all the electricity in the UK comes from one pot — the watts my computer is using now could be from any fuel. But different suppliers contribute different types of electricity to the overall fuel mix. So you can choose to give your hard-earned cash to a company that doesn’t use any fossil fuels at all.
Where do you start?
First up, visit a comparison site like Green Electricity Marketplace armed with a recent electricity bill. Several of the major comparison sites, including uSwitch, also have an option to compare green tariffs. But we like Green Electricity Marketplace because it explains the pros and cons of the different renewable tariffs, as well as just showing you the prices. It also comes recommended by Friends of the Earth. Once you’ve put in your usage and postcode, the site should give you options to choose from.
Which tariff is right for you?
The only way to be sure you’re getting 100% renewable electricity is to opt for a company that doesn’t generate anything else. At this point things get a little technical, because it helps to know a bit about how the energy market in the UK works.
The UK government is aiming for 15% of all electricity to come from renewables by 2020. To encourage this, it gives out things called ROCs — Renewables Obligations Certificates to companies that generate renewable electricity. Each year, every power company has to end up with enough ROCs to cover their share of the government’s renewables target. So if you own a huge coal-fired power station, then to meet your target, you have to buy ROCs from a company that owns a wind farm and has some spare.
Some companies don’t sell all of their spare ROCs — this is called retiring them. We wanted to buy our electricity from a company that doesn’t use any fossil fuels, and which also retires some ROCs. We only found one company that could supply our home office and meet these requirements: Good Energy. We also love the way they encourage you to generate electricity at home, if you can. After two years as happy customers, we’re convinced enough to sign up to their affiliate scheme and spread the word.
Good Energy might be right for you, or you might prefer the look of Ecotricity or another supplier. Whatever you do, just make sure it’s 100% renewable.
You can also cut your electricity bill with an energy meter.