For those living in an area with deregulated electricity, you have probably seen the option to purchase Green Power or a way to support renewable or green energy. However, our investigation in indicates people are finding it hard to get information or finding it confusing to support green energy, which is highlighted with the recent acquisition of Powershop by Shell.
What are your thoughts or experiences about purchasing Green Power?
Transparency in how the ‘green energy’ is sourced is important. This is what Origin has to say.
The outcome is every kilowatt hour of energy consumed is not matched in real time by renewable generation. Can we assume this is similar for most or all of the retailers offering a 100% renewable solution?
Solar PV is a day time only source, wind is variable depending on time of night/week, pumped hydro may be created at times from fossil fuel generation, as might batteries also have a mix of energy sources. It seems a rather complex web to assure energy solely from renewables if measured instantaneously.
Is it more certain if the source is distributed generation/storage? If so should consumers wanting more certainty look to more community level solutions?
P.S.
Some green energy retailers promote how they invest in renewables. Without an open book on how and where their income is spent, it would seem difficult to know with certainty. Is there an ISO accreditation?
This has come up in other threads so I am going to copy/paste.
Even if the retailer can verify that they bought the same amount of green energy as the subscribers paid for that does not show that the scheme is driving the production of more renewables which, as far as I am concerned, is the goal.
If the producers are building more renewable plants because building new FF plants is not economic why should we pay extra while they do as they would have done anyway?
I changed from Powershop to Enova - very satisfactory so far, but I havent done any price comparisons.
Greenpeace’s take on our providers.
Yes Energy Locals have great companies associated with them; we have Indigo Power in our area which is involved in community microgrids, including the “big battery” for Totally Renewable Yackandandah. www.energylocals.com.au
