UK Energy Company Offering 'Poop Gas' for Heating/Cooking

UK households can now buy 15 percent green gas and 100 percent green electricity with one easy tariff.

The UK has made incredible progress in decarbonizing electricity production, but a huge number of UK households still use natural gas for heating and cooking. Alongside finally getting serious about properly insulating all homes, Britain is likely going to need to find alternative sources for gas if it has any hope of upping its ambition on climate targets.

Fortunately, progress is being made on this front too. We've already seen renewable energy pioneers Ecotricity proposing 'green gas mills' for every single site that's slated for fracking in the country. And now municipally-owned energy company Bristol Energy is offering customers its My Green Plus tariff, which consists of 100% renewable electricity and 15% green gas—produced primarily from the poop of the residents of the city of Bristol. (Disclosure: Bristol is my former home town. So I'm quite excited about my friends becoming literal 'producers' of renewable energy!)

According to Business Green, the tariff is the result of a partnership with biogas specialists GenECO, which now treats 75,000,000m3 of sewage waste every year—enough, apparently, to power 8,000 homes with biogas. (The company also operates a food waste collection program, which it also uses to generate biomethane.) GenECO are also, by the way, the people behind Bristol's somewhat famous 'poo bus'.

Of course, signing up for green gas doesn't mean that folks will actually be cooking on poop gas—at least no more than they were already. Much like Britain's deregulated electricity market, the gas is supplied through the mains. So signing up simply means that Bristol Energy and GenECO will be contracted to supply more poop to the system.