Households trying to “go green” with their energy supply are being let down by misleading tariffs, a report states. An analysis of 54 dual-fuel deals with a green component has found that only one in five comes from 100 per cent renewable sources. More than half have no renewable gas component at all and most of the rest offer only carbon offset schemes that have been criticised as ineffective and open to exploitation. Two out of three tariffs offered by one company with the word “green” in the title include no renewables at all. About one in seven households is on such a tariff and one million homes are supplied with “green” gas, an increase of 150 per cent in a year. Up to 40 per cent of Britain’s electricity comes from renewable sources, such as wind farms and solar power. Yet the research says that a third of green deals use less than 33 per cent of electricity from renewables. Critics say that some green tariffs do not result in more renewable energy being produced. Tom Steward, of the supplier Good Energy, said: “A number of suppliers know that owning renewable generation assets makes excellent commercial sense and so have invested in their own sites. They then buy some of their electricity . . . from these sites alongside power from . . . coal and gas power stations. This means that there is some green power in their fuel mix and the rest is ‘brown’. “But instead of offering a truly green tariff they do it by means of a clever accounting trick. Instead of building any new generation or signing contracts with any renewable generators to buy more renewable power they just take some of the green power out of their standard tariff and reallocate it to their green tariff customers making their brown tariff browner.”
Times 10th June 2019 read more »
