19 Nov 2009

Award Winning Renewable Heat Incentive Helps Lower Customer Emissions

Good Energy ‐ the UK’s leading supplier of electricity from 100% renewable sources – is celebrating one year of successful trials of domestic gas supply.

Good Energy started supplying gas in November 2008 after customer feedback and extensive market research showed that a majority of Good Energy customers would prefer to buy their gas from Good Energy rather than other suppliers.

The trials have been successful and Good Energy is now offering gas – as a dual fuel tariff only – to all existing and new customers wanting to make the switch. In order to ensure the gas offering was in keeping with Good Energy’s mission to combat climate change, the company also launched a pioneering, and now award winning, Renewable Heat Incentive – HotROCs – to reward those customers generating their own heat from renewable sources and thereby
reducing their use of gas and electricity.

Funded by revenues from gas sales, HotROCs pays customers for every unit of heat they produce. This acts as an incentive to install solar thermal – the most popular method of renewable heat generation in the UK – and thereby lower the use of gas for heating and hot water in the home.

One of the first people to benefit from the HotROCs scheme was Douglas Larsen. He wanted to save on his gas bills and also reduce his impact on the environment. He had solar thermal panels installed on the roof of his house in Newbury through the online Good Energy Shop.

Mr Larsen said: “After having my solar thermal panels installed through Good Energy’s Shop, I have become one of the first in the country to be part of Good Energy’s pioneering Renewable Heat Incentive. My decision to install solar panels was initially an ethical one – a method to reduce my gas consumption and my carbon footprint. Thanks to this incentive, it has now become an economic one too.”

The HotROCs scheme currently covers solar thermal only, but Good Energy is actively researching ways to extend this to include heat pumps, biomass and micro‐CHP.

Juliet Davenport, founder and CEO of Good Energy said: “The launch of our gas products has been really successful and we have increased our number of solar thermal generating customers to 270, each saving on average half a tonne of CO2.”

“We always knew we couldn’t just launch a standard gas product after years of only selling 100% renewable, but wanted to meet customer demand. This is the first, and the only, renewable heat incentive offered by any supplier. We have set a benchmark for the industry and for Government while also financially supporting our customers to reduce their own emissions.”

“DECC is due to publish guidelines on the use of gas from biomethane and other sources in the future. When they do we will look to incorporate this into our business model, but until then we think this is the greenest option on the market.”

As a gas supplier ‘inside’ the industry, Good Energy will be well positioned to campaign actively for renewable heat in the UK and for incentives to reduce gas usage. It will also support greater use of gas from renewable sources such as anaerobic digestion, landfill and elsewhere.

To learn more about the gas tariff and the renewable heat incentive, please click here, or email: heat@goodenergy.co.uk.

Notes to Editors:

• According to a recent report from National Grid, there is a very small quantity of production of biogas in the UK coming from landfill and sewage plants, but it is being used to generate electricity. The report concludes that there are no insurmountable technical difficulties to delivering biogas. The main hurdle will be about getting the right commercial incentives in place so waste can be turned into biomethane for gas grid injection rather than electricity. When this happens Good Energy will look to incorporate biogas into its offering.

• Good Energy is currently conducting R&D into how the actual performance of different solar thermal systems compares with their theoretical performance, so making the calculation of an incentive payment more accurate. We will be submitting the results of our R&D to the government’s consultation on developing a national Renewable Heat Incentive for solar thermal, due to start in April 2011.

• Good Energy HotROCs has recently won a Sustainable Housing award for Sustainable Innovation, and a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Corporate Green Award for Climate Change Impact