Is it not possible to fit solar panels to your home? Fortunately there are still options for using renewable energy. These include using green energy companies such as Good Energy and Ecotricity or taking advantage of the green tariffs offered by companies such as British Gas.
Good Energy is the UK’s only electricity company that uses 100% renewable energy. They source their energy from over 2000 independent suppliers up and down the country. The electricity is made up of a combination of wind, solar, water power and biofuels. The tariffs are more expensive by an average of £1 per week because as the supply is variable it must be managed on a day to day basis.
Ecotricity do manage to price match the ‘Big 6’ regional energy suppliers such as British Gas but they do this by using a mix of around 50% brown and green energy. They do however invest their profits in building more renewable energy generators. Ecotricity get their green energy from wind, solar and water power and are building the UK’s first solar farm which they expect to have running by April.
British Gas have two green energy tariffs- Future Energy and Future Energy Plus. With Future Energy, the electricity comes from ‘green sources’ and some bill payments are put towards green energy initiatives. Future Energy Plus covers gas as well as electricity and offsets the carbon produced by gas emissions.
If you want to find out what the fuel mix is of your current supplier, a list of companies and their sources can be found at http://www.electricityinfo.org/suppliers.php. With all of these options, there are not only price considerations but also the ethics of each company, where your money is going and the overall impact on the environment of the work they do.