Green Power to the People in the U.K.
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 01.26.06
Whether they know if or not, folks in the U.K. can buy green power at rates guaranteed to match what they pay for conventional power from their local utility. The power will come from wind turbines scattered around the country, all built by the company Ecotricity. They call themselves the largest independent green electricity supplier in Europe. The company currently has seven active sites, a bunch more in the pipeline, and thousands of individual customers. They say that 100% of their profits go to building new facilities. Unlike green power suppliers who buy energy credits on behalf of their customers, Ecotricity is aggressively building their own wind farms around the U.K. The power they sell is the power they make. Residential customers are promised green power at rates that match those of their conventional local utilities.
Commercial customers can be part of the Merchant Wind Power program, in which Ecotricity builds wind turbines on private sites, which they maintain, operate, and own. Private partners agree to buy the turbine’s output for a set number of years. Ford has successfully implemented this model. In 2004, Ecotricity completed two turbines at Ford's Dagenham Clean Engine Facility, just ten miles outside London. The 3.6 megawatts produced by the two on-site turbines powers the entire facility, meaning that the diesel engines coming out of the plant are made with green power. Michelin tire is soon to follow, as they plan to complete a 4 megawatt system early this year at their Dundee plant. Projects like these represent Ecotricity’s preference for smaller and distributed urban wind farms, rather than larger ones in undeveloped areas. Soon to be a customer is the Manchester Football Club, which plans to install a turbine that will provide renewable energy for the famous soccer stadium. :: Ecotricity
It's amazing how fruitful half an hour reading Treehugger can be. I'll be contacting Ecotricity tomorrow to see how easy it is to switch. I've got an awful feeling that my current energy supplier will create a load of hassle for me when I try to leave. I'll keep you posted.
Caldini - it's ridiculously easy! Took less than 5 minutes to fill in their online form, got my welcome pack just under two weeks later, and a switch date of 11th February. Can't wait!
The reason I sent this to Treehugger was because I literally hadn't heard of Ecotricity until recently (when I just happened to be discussing it with the right person in the pub), and something this important deserves to be common knowledge!
Shame they haven't had any TV adverts - I guess it might generate demand at a rate they can't yet meet, but hope they'll get there in the future.
Particularly with Bliar's new-found love for nuclear, this is more important than ever.
Dave, not wishing to curb your enthusiasm, I would like to point out that your energy will not, in fact, be coming 100% from a renewable source when you sign up with ecotricity.
But what will, indeed, be the case, is that 100% of the profits from your energy bill will be invested in increasing wind power generation in the UK, which is certainly a worthy cause. Another approach is to use the green tariff of a standard supplier, which forces them to supply your fraction of energy use from renewable sources, i.e. all your energy will effectively be supplied from renewables.
Having said all that, if I was able to switch my energy supplier (which I am not, being a tenant), I would choose ecotricity in an instant.
irma - I realise that the electrons powering things at my place may not have actually "come" from Ecotricity, just from the grid as a whole!
However, as far as I know, what sets Ecotricity apart from other "green" electricity suppliers in that they don't buy in renewable energy from other companies to meet their quota of renewables. They only sell what they generate - so I guess that means that since they are taking on new customers, they're generating more than they are selling directly.
Furthermore, since they have no external shareholders, they plough nearly all of their profits back into building new windmills, rather than offsetting bought credits against their non-renewable electrictiy generation like most of the others do.
Heh... and I've just realised you said almost the same thing, but since I wrote all this I'm going to post it anyway! :-D