Green Energy Republic

Good Energy review of the year – our highlights in 2010

January

Financing package agreed for new Delabole wind farm development
2010 saw our plans to redevelop our wind farm in Delabole, North Cornwall come to fruition – starting in early January with the £12 million financing package coming online … and ending in December with all turbines generating at full capacity. Read all our blogs on the progress of the Delabole repower here.

February

Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme launched

 
Having campaigned for greater transparency for green electricity tariffs for many years, Good Energy welcomed  the launch of a new independent scheme for certifying green electricity tariffs, based on Ofgem’s Green Supply Guidelines.

March

Good Energy and Energy Saving Trust (EST) launch new advice service
Working with the Energy Saving Trust, we launched a new EST-endorsed energy savings advice service, enabling our team to offer the best possible advice to our customers, helping them make their energy bills lighter on both the planet and their pocket.

Which? awards Good Energy highest score for customer satisfaction
The Which? magazine survey of utilities gave us the top rating for customer satisfaction, saying: “One impressed customer described Good Energy as ‘brilliant’ – a word we rarely seen anywhere near the name of an energy supplier – and said that its communication and customer service was ‘probably second to none in any national business."

April

Government launches Feed-in Tariff
Our own award-winning HomeGen and SmartGen schemes were precursors of the Feed-in Tariff, so we were very pleased when the government launched this scheme to reward independent green generators. Since it was introduced we’ve seen a huge increase in interest from our customers in generating their own power.

Good Energy reports another year of growth and improved profitability
We announced a further improvement in our operating and financial results for the year ended 31 December 2009, our 10th year of operation.

May

New coalition government claims to be ‘greenest ever’
Good Energy has always believed in working with key policy-makers to lobby for changes to help grow renewables in the UK – and we already had good links with members of the new coalition government. How it deals with the challenge of climate change will be of critical importance – and we’ll continue to work to help shape government policy to ensure it delivers on its targets.

June

Good Energy unveils our new look
As more and more electricity suppliers shout about their so-called green credentials we wanted to make sure Good Energy stands out from the crowd, because we really think we have something different - and much better - to offer.

Good Energy gets Green Stamp from Green Energy Certification Scheme
Our main tariff was certified under the Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme. On behalf of our customers we are investing in renewable heat generation projects that will benefit local communities. The income from these schemes will be entrusted to an independent body to invest in further projects, creating ongoing carbon savings.

Further to this, we were delighted with a decision announced in December 2010 by Consumer Focus, Britain’s consumer champion, that electricity tariffs, unless certified green by the Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme, can no longer be listed on broker sites (like uSwitch and Which?) under the category of ‘green’.

July

Good Energy fund-raising fun on the river

 
Good Energy staff took to the water to raise money for one of our partner organisation, the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, in the Chippenham Dragon Boat races.

CAT launches Zero-Carbon Britain
Good Energy partner, the Centre for Alternative Technology, launched its ground-breaking new report exploring how we can Power Down demand for energy, then Power Up the energy system with renewables, very much in line with our own thinking.

August

The end of an era – the original turbines at Delabole come down
Delabole was the UK’s first commercial wind farm. After 19 years of generating clean, green electricity, the original 10 turbines are decommissioned, but their lives aren’t over yet. They are heading to Eastern Europe to continue producing renewable power.

September

Good Energy completes our first community renewable heat project
The first project we invested in as part of our Green Certification was the installation of a biomass boiler at St. Mary’s School, Timsbury, near Bath. We chose St. Mary’s because of its clear aspiration to raise environmentally aware pupils and because it had been working towards installing biomass heating for several years – Good Energy was the catalyst that made it happen. 

First new turbine goes up at Delabole

 
Our repowering project continues as the first of four larger and more efficient turbines goes up at our new wind farm.

October

Juliet unveils the pathway to a 100% renewable future
Speaking at the Schumacher Conference in Bristol, our CEO Juliet Davenport unveils an ambitious target for Good Energy – a pathway for the UK to become 100% renewable by 2050.

Government’s comprehensive spending review protects Feed-in Tariffs – for now
Massive spending cuts were one of the coalition government’s first big announcements – and while there was a great deal of speculation that the Feed-in Tariff could be an early casualty, the CSR actually turned out to be quite good news for renewables.

10:10:10 – a Global Day of Doing

 
Good Energy has been proud to support the 10:10 campaign throughout the year, offering our customers who pledged their support regular updates and tips on how to cut their energy use. The 10th October was the high point in the calendar – 10:10’s Global Day of Doing.

November

Good Energy signs up our 1000th Feed-in Tariff (FIT) customer
We hit a significant milestone, signing up our one thousandth FIT customer. This means that more than one in every 20 of our customers is a generator. We’re now working with over 1500 independent renewable generators spread across the country, all helping Britain build a 100% renewable future.

December

Good Energy announces winter price freeze
While most of the UK was shivering in the coldest December for 100 years, we were delighted to be able to announce a winter price freeze for both gas and electricity. The move to hold prices down demonstrates Good Energy’s commitment to ensure that green energy is more accessible; and is in marked contrast to most of the main (fossil-fuel-based) energy suppliers who said they were putting their prices up.

Good Energy announces maiden dividend payment
We would not have been able to work towards our mission to make a difference to climate change without the help of our shareholders, so Good Energy Group was delighted  to declare our first ever dividend, of 2.5p per share, in recognition of their support over the years.

Delabole wind farm starts generating at full capacity

 
At last, work on redeveloping the wind farm is complete – and is able to supply around 20% of our customers’ electricity requirements, saving approximately 13,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. A big thank you to our shareholders, our customers and the Delabole community for their help and support.

Government announces electricity market reform
The government unveiled ambitious plans to reform the electricity market to enable to UK to deliver on its carbon-cutting targets – although unfortunately some inaccurate claims about the costs to consumers ended up dominating the headlines.

Looking ahead to 2011 …

After such an eventful year in 2010, what are we looking forward to in 2011?

In the renewables industry, key focal points will be ensuring the Feed-in Tariff remains fit for purpose; ensuring the electricity market reform proposals deliver for renewables; and we’ll be awaiting with interest the government’s announcement on a Renewable Heat Incentive.

We’ll be launching a new campaign to abolish grid average for calculating carbon and for all renewables to be counted by DEFRA as zero carbon.

And we hope to follow up the success of our new wind farm development at Delabole with a series of new wind farm development opportunities.

So, keep watching this space!

From everyone at Good Energy, we wish you all a very successful, 100% renewable year in 2011.

Bye bye January blues, hello 'Hot 100'

 Students at Nyangwayo School in Muhuru Bay, Western Kenya celebrate their solar installation.
Photo Credit - SolarAid

January is notoriously the gloomiest month of the year. The seasonal festivities are well and truly over leaving in their wake a few pounds of extra body weight, piles of wrapping paper and a fridge full of leftovers. And that’s not to mention the New Year’s resolutions that are already starting to look optimistic. But it doesn’t have to be this way, thanks to the charity SolarAid.

Set up by Dr. Jeremy Leggett, founder of Good Energy partner Solarcentury, SolarAid is on the hunt for 100 people to raise £1000 each, in any way they want (the more creative the better), over the next 12 months. So why not combine your New Year’s resolutions with helping to tackle both climate change and global poverty? Working in rural areas across East and Southern Africa, SolarAid installs solar panels on schools, community centres and clinics, so that some of the poorest people in the world can harness their own renewable energy and transform their lives.

Perhaps you have designated 2011 as the year to really get fit? Why not do a sponsored run or cycle ride? Or perhaps you just want to do something a sociable? Try organising a wine a series of wine tastings for your friends, a car boot sale or an entertainment event.

Becoming one of SolarAid’s ‘Hot 100’ fundraisers is totally free and the charity promises you a lot of fun along the way, with the chance to win an inspirational trip to Africa to see for yourself how they are spending the money you raise, as well as invitations to pub nights to meet fellow challengers, and an end of year dinner to celebrate your achievements.

For any enquiries, please email hot100@solar-aid.org. And remember, it's hot for a reason. There are only 100 spaces and it's first come, first served.

Like so many of the best innovations, SolarAid is a simple idea but one that has made a huge impact, reaching around 100,000 people with solar power since it began. What started as a group of volunteers meeting a couple of evenings a month, has now grown to more than 30 employed staff and over a hundred volunteers today - making it one of the fastest growing NGOs.

See the story of Bob Kokonya, a farmer in Kenya who was spending the majority of his meagre income on lighting his family home with dirty, inefficient and dangerous kerosene powered lamps. Thanks to help from SolarAid, Bob can now invest his income in his farm, in other basic needs, or in more solar power.

Dear Santa...

Here at Good Energy our belts are already tightening around mince pie filled tummies. The final Christmas Wish list comes from our partners at Farming Futures, which helps farmers and landowners prepare for the impacts of climate change. But before we hand over to them, we'd just like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

 
Dear Santa,

We’ve been very good at Farming Futures this year: running a sell-out season of events, taking Twitter to the farm and winning a Global Green Award for our work informing and inspiring farmers and land managers to take action on climate change.

So what’s our wish for 2011? Well, ‘tis the season to be greedy, so we have a few:

Fair trade for British farmers, continued commitment to the Feed-in Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive from Government, a secure future for Farming Futures and finally we’d like to see the food industry raise a glass, shout ‘bottom up’ and let the farmers’ voices be heard when it comes to industry decision making. Farmers have the ideas, power and ingenuity to make the food system truly sustainable.

Merry Christmas from all at Farming Futures.

Dear Santa...

We asked Good Energy partner Solarcentury, the UK's leading independent solar electricity company, to reveal their hopes for the coming year.

 
Like Good Energy, Solarcentury has been working hard to increase awareness and take up of renewables for some time – it’s helped more buildings go solar than anyone else in the UK. We both think that solar photovoltaics and wind power are a great match, with those generating their own electricity from solar during the day using wind power at night. That's why Solarcentury recommends its customers sign up to Good Energy get both the Feed-in tariff and a 100% renewable electricity supply.

2010 has been a major turning point for solar power in the UK. Now, we must all move forward and make the very best of the Feed-in Tariff. At Solarcentury we hope that the coming year will see local councils generating their own power, helping them save money on fuel bills and creating an income from the Feed-in Tariff for other services. This in turn will see:

1/ Schools learning about renewables by seeing and understanding the solar power on their roof
2/ Those who spend too high a proportion of their income on escalating electricity bills at home starting to generate their own clean electricity
3/ Those who think the Feed-in Tariff is for the middle classes, realising it is a vital way to democratise energy and bring stable electricity prices to those who need it most. 
 
Let’s hope councils understand the true benefits of the Feed-in Tariff and move quickly to bring benefits to local boroughs across the UK, making 2011 the real kick start year for energy democratisation. 
 
As we say here at Solarcentury, 'love your roof'.

Dear Santa...

Good Energy customer and ethical British clothing brand Griffin has high hopes for sustainability in the fashion industry this year.

 

Griffin's one Christmas wish would be for the fast-fashion industry to disappear forever, in one large BOOM! Well, we know reality is never quite like that, but we do hope that the “throw-away fashion” aspect of our industry will be phased out completely to make way for transparency and a more sustainable future.

We would hope that our wish and approach will encourage consumers to become more conscious of what they buy and where their products come from. We are working to make our products more transparent, highlighting where the raw materials originate and how far they've travelled to ensure that customers feel confident that their products are not only produced ethically but to know that the quality will last. Wear more, buy less, and most importantly, source local.

Griffin is still offering 10% off all of its merchandise (including sale items) until January 31st 2011 if you quote GOODENERGY at the checkout.

Smart Metering Q&A

A core feature of the UK’s future energy landscape is Smart Metering, and Good Energy is already trialling Smart Meters at some of our flagship and large business customers, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace – and in our own offices. We are also involved with the government’s consultation and workshops on smart metering, and partnered in smart meter trials for some of our generators. The government should make the final specifications known late next year, when we’ll be able to tell our customers our plans for wider roll out.

There’s been lots of debate in the media at the moment about the introduction of smart metering, and what smart meters can and cannot do.  To try and sort the facts from the fiction, we put some questions to Chris Welby, Good Energy’s Commercial Director.




Q  Will smart metering reduce my energy use?

Not necessarily.  Smart metering will be a tool which will allow people to understand their energy usage, and then use that information to reduce their energy use.  It is an enabling tool.  If you have a smart meter fitted, and then don’t bother to interact with it, then it will not save you any money at all.  One of the most interesting things I have found is knowing what my base load is – i.e. how much you use if you are not physically doing anything or are even out of the house.  My base load is about 70 watts, consisting of things like clocks, broadband routers, cordless phones and a couple of appliances that must be on standby.  All of this uses about a tenth of my total annual electricity consumption.  Smart metering will allow people to understand this and understand what they waste – until Smart Meters are introduced, an Energy Monitor does this job quite well.

Q Will energy companies be monitoring what I do?

No. For most people suppliers will request a reading from the meter once a month, and that’s it.  Real-time data about your energy usage is for the customer to use in their homes.   One of the key principles that the government, industry and consumer groups agree on is that the customer owns the data.  So energy companies can only use it with your consent for the purposes you agree (e.g. to supply electricity or gas).  Data can only be used for other purposes with the customer’s consent.

For example it may be possible for Smart Metering technology to enable a device to monitor housebound elderly people and activate an alarm if energy use stops. However, customers would have to consent to the system being installed, and give their energy supplier permission to recognise the device and allow it to interact with the meter.   Consumers will always be in charge of what they share.

Q Will energy companies will be able to cut me off remotely?

Cutting off customers’ energy supplies is always a last resort.  There are, and will remain strict rules around this.  In reality, smart metering should reduce the need to cut off supplies because companies could offer alternatives, such as a pre-payment meter without the need to change the meter, or a policy of allowing only a maximum number of units of use per day, all with the customer’s agreement.  It’s also the case that the small number of people who don’t pay for their energy usage, are subsidised by those who do.  So this will actually benefit the vast majority.

Q Will smart meters talk to my fridge and other devices?

This is not about your fridge using the network to order more milk, but it could be that in return for a cheaper tariff, you allow your energy supplier or local network operator the right to delay certain devices from using energy for short periods, normally at peak times.  You probably wouldn’t notice a difference, but it could help manage and reduce energy use.  At Good Energy we believe this has great potential.

Overall, smarter meters will be beneficial for everyone, offering accurate bills, better understanding of energy usage and options for cheaper tariffs.  In time they will also offer technology solutions which will allow us to build a more efficient energy system based on renewables, and that can only be a good thing.

Let it snow …

by Sophy



One of the round robin emails that clogs up my inbox at this time of year included this comment on the unseasonally early snowfall: “Hope the global warming nuts are choking on their words.”

It certainly made me choke with indignation – every time we get a spell of cold weather it gets held up as evidence by the climate change skeptics as ‘proof’ that the climate isn’t changing after all.  When the snow hit last winter (albeit not until much later in the season) I wrote this blog  (March 1st 2010) on the difference between the weather and the climate.

The same arguments apply, of course, this year – and if you need some ammunition for your own climate-change-is-really-happening  armoury there have been some great pieces of journalism published this week:

• The Independent interviewed the chief scientist of the Met office, who says “"The key message is that global warming continues."
• George Monbiot makes a compelling argument in the Guardian that the snow can be seen as evidence for climate change, not against it.
• And here’s a straightforward Q&A about the causes of the cold weather.
• Meanwhile, one for the skeptics - over at The Telegraph, Christopher Booker has a go at the scientific data on temperature rises:  Some of the comments posted after the article are particularly illuminating.

Dear Santa...

Good Energy customer and generator Mark Townfield and his family at Green Directions on Townfield Head Farm have these requests on their Christmas wish list.

 
At Green Directions we wish that

1. Those that lead us, appreciate that; “The highest wisdom has but one science – the science of the whole – the science explaining the whole creation and man’s place in it.” Leo Tolstoy -War and Peace.
2. Everyone comes to realise that even the smallest of ‘green’ steps makes a difference
3. The wind keeps turning our turbine
4. The sun keeps illuminating our solar panels
5. The rain keeps filling our water tank

Dear Santa...

Good Energy customer, generator and experimental short film maker Tony Hill and his family have these hopes for the coming year.

 
We hope that in the coming year some car manufacturers will have come up with viable and affordable electric cars that will seriously threaten the oil industry. Car performance will become about economy and sustainability rather than how quickly they can accelerate from 0 to 60. Another hope is to see more and more local community initiatives to set up renewable energy generation. Communities can own, run and profit from their own renewable energy. Local authorities could also set up their own generation to power street lights, hospitals and schools.

Dear Santa...

Good Energy customer Cool it Schools is calling all schools to join in with its global creative projects for young people who want to do something positive about climate change and the environment. Here’s what Director Jane Langley and her team (including Cool it Schools’ mascot, a diminutive Dachshund called Mole) wish for this Christmas.

 
The Cool it Schools Christmas list is full of colour, bees and woollen undies. We have a fab new eco paint shop called Colour Makes People Happy so we intend to generate psychological warmth to drive out January gloom. Our old friend Robin (Red Beehive Company) is making us a very fancy bee hotel for the clump of weeds we fondly call the garden. My 95 year old father currently has a passion for woollen underpants and vests (we are hoping he forgets to go shopping) and Mole is after a new coat in readiness for Jungle Fever the 2011 crowd funding campaign we are launching during Climate Week to conserve rainforests. So if anyone fancies making a very small Dachshund a very small coat please get in touch.