Energy suppliers... choice between coal/gas/wind/solar/etc?

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

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Hey,

Was just setting up new electricity account in France and noticed this on the comparison website... when choosing the supplier, you get to choose what percentage of your electricity is provided by renewable sources.

When last setting up an account in the UK about 4 years ago, I don't remember being able to do this... is is an option over there now? I like it...

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I haven't seen it. But you can get lists of how much renewable energy each supplier uses and how much they reinvest in renewable and some offer green tariffs.
Which looking closer is what that is.
 
booyaka said:
you can choose "green" tariffs etc from various providers but they are inevitably more expensive.
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Fair enough, nice then that this offer is barely noticeably higher than the base rates.

Glaucus said:
I haven't seen it. But you can get lists of how much renewable energy each supplier uses and how much they reinvest in renewable and some offer green tariffs.
Which looking closer is what that is.
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OK... but what about like this where the energy supplier guarantees that your contribution goes 100% towards renewable supplies?
 
You can.

I'm with EDF, and their tariffs for example:

Blue Tariff = 100.0% Nuclear.
Green Tariff = 100.0% Renewable
Other Tariffs (Variable etc) = 29.3% Coal, 3.8% Gas, 55.1% Nuclear, 11.6% Renewable, 0.2% Other.

http://www.edfenergy.com/fuel-mix

I don't know how much the Green Tariff costs, but the Blue one is 13.02p per kWh and the Standard one is 14.94p per kWh (both with 18.90p per day standing charge). So the Blue tariff is both cheaper (£156 cheaper on our annual usage) and less carbon emitting.
 
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crinkleshoes said:
OK... but what about like this where the energy supplier guarantees that your contribution goes 100% towards renewable supplies?
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Yep. Good energy is 100% renewable.
Green energy uk, is ~50% renewable and reinvests 50% profits a year back into renewable, increasing their percentage etc.
 
Westyfield2 said:
You can.

I'm with EDF, and their tariffs for example:

Blue Tariff = 100.0% Nuclear.
Green Tariff = 100.0% Renewable
Other Tariffs (Variable etc) = 29.3% Coal, 3.8% Gas, 55.1% Nuclear, 11.6% Renewable, 0.2% Other.

http://www.edfenergy.com/fuel-mix

I don't know how much the Green Tariff costs, but the Blue one is 13.02p per kWh and the Standard one is 14.94p per kWh (both with 18.90p per day standing charge). So the Blue tariff is both cheaper (£156 cheaper on our annual usage) and less carbon emitting.
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Do other UK suppliers do this?
 
isnt most of France nuclear? so even the non-green energy is better (at least in overall life cycle co2/kwh) than what we get.

Theres a few companies over here that offer it as a usp, but afaik they will pull in power from the regular grid when theres a calm day or somesuch.

wind power would work better if they got with the offshore windfarms better, deep offshore its difficult and expensive but at least theres nobody around to complain, and its more powerful.

also, cover the Sahara desert with solar concentrators.

or alternately people could stop with the whole "not in my back yard" attitude for the greater good.
 
Glaucus said:
What utter rubbish.
If you go in a free. Deal they have to make sure they put into the grid what ever you use vie renewable. If mire people would change, then they would have to build more renewable faster.
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Was after a good chuckle, thanks! I suspect something like this will happen in reality.

1) As more people move to the green (sucker) tariff the price differential between the green and non-green tariff will increase.

2) This will mean some people will move away from the tariff such that number of people on the green tariff does not come close to exceeding 'supply' i.e. capacity of renewables.

3) Rinse and repeat the above such that the price point of the green tariff is always such they entice the maximum number of people but don't have to bring about change due to not being able to meet supply.

If you think by moving to the green tariff you are facilitating the development of more green energy generation you are most likely kidding yourself.

Do you think the price differential between the tariffs represents the difference in cost of energy generation between renewable and non-renewable? Not a chance! I wonder if the fall in price of crude has influenced the differences between the traiffs... I bet it hasn't. It's just close enough that they can entice some people in who are prepared to pay a bit more to 'save the planet' and pat themselves on the back.

This is basically an idiot tax.
 
That isn't what happens at all. some reinvest significant portions of their profits back into renewable as part of their remit. Others have to supply accounts to ofgem to prove they are meeting their advertising.

Only idiot is well that post. Based on nothing but a very silly opinion. So yeah thanks for the good laugh.

If you look just a few posts up, I've named two such companies. One only uses renewable, the other plows 50% of profits back into renewables.
 
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rubberduck said:
Was after a good chuckle, thanks! I suspect something like this will happen in reality.

1) As more people move to the green (sucker) tariff the price differential between the green and non-green tariff will increase.

2) This will mean some people will move away from the tariff such that number of people on the green tariff does not come close to exceeding 'supply' i.e. capacity of renewables.

3) Rinse and repeat the above such that the price point of the green tariff is always such they entice the maximum number of people but don't have to bring about change due to not being able to meet supply.

If you think by moving to the green tariff you are facilitating the development of more green energy generation you are most likely kidding yourself.

Do you think the price differential between the tariffs represents the difference in cost of energy generation between renewable and non-renewable? Not a chance! I wonder if the fall in price of crude has influenced the differences between the traiffs... I bet it hasn't. It's just close enough that they can entice some people in who are prepared to pay a bit more to 'save the planet' and pat themselves on the back.

This is basically an idiot tax.
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Can I have tonight's lottery numbers as well?

You clearly understand the green tax on energy bills.
 
Glaucus said:
That isn't what happens at all. some reinvest significant portions of their profits back into renewable as part of their remit. Others have to supply accounts to ofgem to prove they are meeting their advertising.

Only idiot is well that post. Based on nothing but a very silly opinion. So yeah thanks for the good laugh.

If you look just a few posts up, I've named two such companies. One only uses renewable, the other plows 50% of profits back into renewables.
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Yes this is right.
I sell electricity from a wind turbine to the energy companies.
So for example Haven power are offering the best rate for me at the moment as I was told they want to up their renewable percentage.
 
I wish we could afford atleast one turbine, the hill we are renting a house on now is windy a lot & if we could afford it, be good to start a wind farm here. Just buy up the land & put a few up.
 
Edward78 said:
I wish we could afford atleast one turbine, the hill we are renting a house on now is windy a lot & if we could afford it, be good to start a wind farm here. Just buy up the land & put a few up.
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If only it was that simple. The banks will lend money to people with renewable projects pretty easily.

Unfortunately getting planning and having a grid connection are some of the main issues. Some landowners I know have been stuck fighting planning for small scale 50kw turbines for 3 years let alone wind farms.

Anti organisations will lie through there teeth to drum up local media support against such applications.
 
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