This is the question that we must ask ourselves in the light of the latest suggestions from regulator OFGEM that the Direct Debit energy bills supplied must be more accurate in the future, and provide a detailed breakdown of what exactly you are paying for with your energy bills (BBC News). There has been complaints from consumer groups for a number of years that energy firms have been setting their direct debit rates too high. OFGEM concluded that it could find no evidence that this was the case, but we will be checking our bills anyway and would suggest that you do the same.
Who are we paying?
Whilst pondering your bill it also may be worth considering exactly WHO you are paying – as most of the UK energy firms are owned by foreign comapanies (how many UK energy consumers are aware of this?, perhaps something OFGEM could research in the future…..)
Scottish and Southern Energy – Has been based in Perth, Scotland since its inception in 1998
E.ON – Took over Powergen in 2002 – German-based.
NPower – Parent company in German behemoth RWE
Électricité de France (EDF) – Produced 22% of 2003 EU Electricity, 74.5% of which was from Nuclear Power.
Scottish Power – Under control of Spanish utilities firm Iberdola
British Gas – Centrica ltd took over the British Gas name in the UK
Of the ‘big six’ energy companies that were involved in the tendering process, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy won a share of the contracts that were available. Scottish Power will supply power to major public buildings within Scotland, and SSE will supply metered council housing with green electricity.
Both companies have insisted that the energy for these projects will be produced from 100% Scottish renewable sources.
Scotland is seeking to cut emissions by 80% before 2050.
Glendoe Power Station
Scottish and Southern Energy will generate its power from its big new hydro project at Glendoe to supply its side of the energy deal.
The 100MW capacity Glendoe power station, built adjacent to Loch Ness, is the first conventional hydro-electric pwer station to be built for 50 years. The SSE contract also provides access to low carbon and renewable technologies such as combined heat and power, solar and biomass.
Scottish Government Finance minister John Swinney outlined the main principles behind the deal:
On top of saving money this contract will create a greener Scotland. The public sector needs to show leadership if we are to achieve the ambitions of our Climate Change Bill.
The contracts will help public bodies address emissions from energy use through a range of energy efficiency measures, access to renewable generation sources and opportunities to sell green electricity back to the Grid. The vast majority of public bodies have recognised these benefits and have signed up to this deal.
Is this deal good for Scotlands energy future? Please let us know your opinions…………
We can’t quite believe it but it is actually mid-April. Therefore, with one-quarter of the year gone we thought that it would be interesting to compile our top 5 green energy related stories of 2009 so far. It has definitely been an eventful start to the year, the majority of energy news is understanably resonating from the new US administration and the continuing global economic situation. These combined events have seen some of the biggest institutions in the world begin to adapt their policies and practice in order to fall in line with the green revolution. Anyway, here are five of our top green stories of Q1 2009.
The Pentagon turns green! – Not exactly renowned for making either cost or energy efficiciency savings, the news that the US Defence HQ was installing 4,200 LED lights in Wedge 5 of the labyrinthyne building is a strong indication of the level of green agenda penetration. The new lights use 22 percent less power than the fluorescent bulbs replace, which will pay back their extra expense in 4 years.
Green Pentagon
Oil giant Shell drops green investments – You know that an economy is in trouble when giants such as Shell stop investing in anything – sadly, in this case it is their green energy initiatives which have bourne the brunt of cost-saving.
China orders Governments to focus on Green Energy – The importance of China grabbing the green initiative shouldn’t be underestimated. The country which houses 20% of the world’s population can have a huge impact on the environment of planet earth.
China - going green
We have saved the Ozone Layer – is this right!? – For years the central message of the CO2 emission reductiuon policies has been to ’save the Ozone Layer’ – well, according to the latest research we have actually managed to do it. Is this right, it all seems a bit improbable.
Thats our five top green stories of 2009 so far – what would be your choices?
Glasgow has been giving permission to build a £3,000,000 wind farm that will be the largest yet to be built in Europe, the farm will host 140 huge wind turbines that will pump 322 megawatts of power into the national grid, enough megawatts to power over 200,000 homes – the equivalent of supplying the hole of Glasgow with Green Electricity, the farm will be built on moorland next to East Kilbride and will cover an area of 7.2 miles by 4.3 and wile there has been some opposition due to the impact they will have on the area the consensus has been positive and when the turbines are in operation in 2009 they will remove the strain on other power sources
Glasgow builds biggest wind farm in Europe
along with 650,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide it’s no wonder there is a lot of backing for this project to happen. There will also be a visitor center, cycle route and a walkway for tourists and locals alike.
There is another 24 wind farms under construction and another 77 with planning permission in Scotland so we should be well placed to bypass our energy targets of 5.5Gigawatts that will supply our great nation with 31% of renewable energy each year.
We’ve recently came across this extremely cynical post on green electricity from Fred Pearce over at The Guardian. He slaughters the majority of the UK biggest energy suppliers, claiming that the green and clean electricity and gas tariffs that they offer are nothing more than a smokescreen.
We tend to feel that in some cases Mr Pearce may indeed have a point. However, you cannot possibly blame green conscious consumers for signing up to these tariffs – many of them will have no idea as to the technical aspects of the energy generation process. They simply wish to lower their carbon footprint and increase the energy efficiency of their homes.
Hi-Yep it is good to see that big business is recognising that by going green it does not necessarily follow that profits will suffer. They are finally beginning to realise that they could capitalise on the rise of ‘Green Consciousness’ amongst the UK population, and if thats the case then it should bode well for the environment.
Indeed, it is encouraging to see Scottish Hydro Electric implementing what they call their ‘better plan‘, which sounds like an excellent scheme to induce households accross the UK into increasing their day to day energy efficiency (100% hydro-electricity offered).
However, there is still a long road ahead as according to Statistics Estonia, although electricity generation from Renewables is increasing steadily (+7.5% from 2005-2006), the overall percentage of UK electricity generated in 2006 was only 4.6% – this is comapred to Germany (10.5%), France (11.3%), Sweden (54.3%), Austria (57.4%) and Norway (108.4%!).
So, hopefully now the green energy momentum is staring to build in both the business sector and in the case of individual households we can look forward to closing the gap on the rest of Europe.
Renewable electricity is not just a fashion trend it’s here to stay. Business are encouraged to go green by government.
Governments across the world have been urging businesses to lead the way in the green revolution, so far the larger companies particularly ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury etc., have been slightly more proactive in this step than smaller business this is because it is perceived that ‘going green’ means costing money. Experts are starting to show this is not true and that is can actually be cost effective to go green.
Dr Martin Gibson, director of Envirowise states that companies “who take action for the first time can identify savings of up to £250 per employee in office-based companies – or as much as £1,000 per employee for manufacturers.”(BBC, 2007). This makes renewable energy and green electricity an affordable and cost effective way to run a business.
