Green Electricity ?

Is it worth switching to a green electricity tariff ???

I'm with OVO Energy, which last time I looked at the MSE Money club thing was one of the cheapest options with fair customer rating for my area that fitted my needs for electricity and gas. I tend to pretty much choose on price.

My tariff is Better Energy, which it seems by luck more than anything, is fairly reasonable. It has a minim 33% from renewables and the company pride or at least sell themselves pretty well on RENEWABLE

Due to various bits, changing and estimates and other bits i've not got a very accurate idea of how much electricity I use. However given the last 3 months totaled up and divided i get around 500kwh per month. On that basis, lets say I use 6000kwh a year

After a bit of a search on the net i found Electricity Carbon Generation data on how much carbon electricity seems to generate. It's WAY more in depth than i really want to go but at the bottom gives a simple figure of 10,000kwh  equating to 5.65 short tons of carbon dioxide, or converting to metric 5.12

Since I'm at 6000 vs 10,000 then 6000/10,000 = 0.6 - Multiply 5.12 by 0.6  and this gives my yearly creation of CO2 at 3.07 tonnes. 
However since OVO are a minim of 33% renewable, so solar, wind etc then i'm only 66% of that, so 2.03 tonnes.

Interestingly OVO have another option available, a 100% green option at £5 per month, which is £60 for the year, or about £30 per tonne. They've also got a special offer on my dash board, green electricity and green gas for £8 combined, saving a £1 per option.
Green Electricity

  • 100% from sources like wind and solar.
  • 5 trees planted each year, on your behalf to offset harmful carbon emissions.*

Whilst more economical use of energy is a good thing for the world and I could do with switching things off more and having more economical appliances, I doubt there is a better bang for the buck, if you can afford it, than switching to a 100% renewable green tariff. Two tonnes for £60!

Also the more who switch to SPECIFICALLY renewable tariffs, the more the energy industry will take note and more investment in renewable sources will happen and with a bit of luck we'll be even less reliant on fossil fuels for the people that can't afford or care less than we do! It's a Double WIN 


Since doing this research my latest bill came in on the app and i had a read through it. Seems my expected usage is 6736kwh, so i wasn't far off in my own estimations. Also there's an extra bit detailing OVO's energy sources for the period. They're at 42.9% renewables which is considerably better than their web site states at 33%. There is also a 204g per kwh rating for the rest of their source. A bit of maths and that means i'm at 1.4 tonnes which is better than expected. 



BTW if you want to give OVO a try, HERE is a referral link they're offering a free £75 gift card for both of us, which will offset a year or so of green energy - However this is not the purpose of writing this, but a bonus. 

There may be a green/renewable option with your current provider and there are other energy suppliers than do green energy in the UK. It's worth having a look if you are out of contract or nearing the end of one at the MSE link above and seeing if you can SAVE and make a difference. This is just my personal investigation into what *I* can do, and helping to make it easier for someone else to see the difference and make their own minds up!

Carbon Running Totals
Start :15.9     
Goal:10.5 or less    Previous:15.9    Saving:1.4     New total :14.5 

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