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factsheet
green
electricity |
what
is it?
It is obtaining the electricity that you use from environmentally-friendly
sources. The electricity you use in your home is probably from the
National Grid. There
are ways of being 'off-grid', for example using a generator, solar
pv, wind, hydro, or micro-chp, together with batteries. But the
vast majority of people in the UK are connected to the National
Grid. And most of the electricity put into the National Grid is
'brown' - from power stations using fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil)
or nuclear.
But now some companies are feeding the National Grid using renewables,
for example large wind turbines or hydro-electricity. This is 'green'
electricity. Also included in the 'green' category is electricity
from companies that use your money to research and build new renewable
generation capacity, or to offset carbon by investing in projects
to absorb or reduce carbon emissions in some other way.
Two more things that you need to know:
Firstly, there are two types of companies involved in providing
green electricity – suppliers and generators. Some companies
have no electricity generating capacity, but supply the public with
electricity that they have purchased from generating companies.
Other companies (e.g. Ecotricity)
are both suppliers and generators. Ecotricity operate around 25
Megawatts of wind turbine capacity, and also sell direct to the
public.
Secondly, if you switch to a green electricity supplier, you won't
then be able to trace your electricity back to a wind turbine. It
simply means that the more people switch, the greater the proportion
of green electricity in the National Grid.
what are the benefits?
This
is not about home-scale micro-generation from renewables. This is
about your contribution to large-scale renewable energy developments,
like wind farms, large hydro-electric power schemes, and also wave
and tidal power.
There is some opposition to large renewable energy projects, notably
wind farms, and we respect people's opinions about the effects of
wind turbines on the landscape. We wouldn't want turbines on every
hillside, but we think that ultimately, ecology (which after all,
supports human life on this planet) is more important than the view.
And anything that mitigates the problems below has to be explored.
It's too important not to.
If you switch to green electricity, you are helping develop large-scale
renewable energy projects, which help counter the problems associated
with the alternatives - which are:
climate change
There is no 'debate' any more. 99.9% of scientists recognise that
climate change is happening, it's dangerous, and it's man-made.
The media promote the idea of a debate to sell papers and put bums
on seats. There is a direct link between CO2
in the atmosphere and average global temperatures, and CO2
has gone up by about a third since the industrial revolution (and
is rising rapidly). You may think this means warmer summers and
milder winters (good), but it also means more deserts, melting ice-caps
and large-scale coastal flooding, more hurricanes, environmental
destruction, famine, and the deaths of millions of people (very
bad).
peak oil
Oil is a finite resource, and its use is increasing dramatically.
This can only mean one thing – it's not going to be around
for much longer. 'Peak' oil means the point of maximum production,
after which prices increase and production tails off to (eventually)
tiny amounts as we try and find the last drops from currently uneconomical
fields. As most of our food (especially in the West) depends on
oil for fertilizers, machinery and transport, unless we have alternative
energy supplies, or you produce your own food (and manage to hang
on to it), you're going to go very hungry.
nuclear power
There's not enough uranium left for nuclear power to take over from
fossil fuels for more than a couple of decades. Fast breeder reactors
could increase that, but they're not safe; and it's not at all sure
that nuclear fusion (what happens inside the sun) can ever be harnessed,
or at least in the near future. And there's the question of devastating
accidents, and nuclear waste, which is highly dangerous for tens
of thousands of years (and we're still discovering Roman ruins from
a couple of thousand years ago!). And yet nuclear continues to receive
billions in taxpayer subsidies while renewables receive next to
nothing.
Who knows, there may
be an invention around the corner that will solve these problems,
but it's not looking likely, and it's too much of a risk to do nothing.
what
can I do?
You can switch to a green electricity supplier – today. It
is probably the easiest and quickest way to have a significant effect
in helping to reduce the damage to the ecology of our planet.
The green electricity market is constantly changing as new players
enter, new generating capacity is built, and prices change. Also,
because suppliers are in direct competition with each other for
your custom, there is a huge amount of marketing information out
there, which can be daunting and confusing.
Fortunately, there are websites
to help you keep up with the changes, and to compare green electricity
suppliers.
As mentioned, there are different kinds of green electricity, so
price isn't everything. Having said that, you can compare the tariffs
of green electricity suppliers in your area by visiting Green
Prices.
So, once you have checked out some of these websites and decided
which supplier is the one for you, as regards their activities and
the price of their electricity, simply go to their website and switch
online, or give them a call. It can be done immediately, with no
interruption to your supply.
resources
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more
- information, links, suppliers etc. |
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printable version
of this factsheet (pdf)
one of
two large turbines at Ecotech,
at Swaffham, Norfolk. Its capacity is 1.5MW, enough to power 1,100
homes. It was installed by Ecotricity,
and you can visit and climb to a viewing platform behind the blades
some people
think that wind turbines are ugly, some people think they are beautiful
- it's subjective. Some think that turbines in their area will reduce
their house prices (they won't, btw), others put environmental protection
above self-interest. But really, this is the alternative
hillsides
are obviously good locations for wind turbines; but there is no
reason that they can't be placed in other locations where they will
have very little visual impact, such as industrial estates, urban
areas, motorway service stations, or following the contours of a
road, like these turbines in Denmark. See Danish
Wind Industry Association
electricity
from large-scale renewables goes into the National
Grid along with electricity from coal-fired, gas-fired, and
nuclear power stations. The more people who switch to green electricity
though, the greater the proportion of renewable electricity in the
Grid
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