By Juliet

We’ve got some great news for our customers – all our electricity now meets the standards set by the new Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme.

Why is this important? For many years Good Energy campaigned for an accreditation scheme for green electricity. We believe that the reason the green electricity market hasn’t grown as much as, say, the organic movement, is because of a lack of a strong accreditation body. So we were very pleased when the new Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme was launched in February this year. We think the additional consumer confidence the scheme brings will really help grow the market for renewables in the UK. After a similar scheme was launched in Australia, the renewable electricity market grew by 25 percent in a year.

We are still the UK’s only electricity supplier whose fuel mix is 100% renewable – and now we’re also the only supplier who can guarantee that all our electricity fulfils the criteria of the certification. We know it’s important that customers can trust that what we say is what we do.

The Green Energy Scheme has two main guiding principles:

That the electricity supplied on behalf of the customer be 100% renewable and 100% backed by the appropriate  REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin) and LECs (Levy Exemption Certificates), to ensure there is no double counting of electricity sold to customers. 

That for every customer there must be an additional measurable carbon mitigation above and beyond the supply of 100% renewable electricity set at  50kg per customer per year – for Good Energy this means in the order of 1600 tonnes per year in addition to providing 100% renewable electricity. 

Under the new 2010 Green Certification scheme Good Energy will achieve our additionality by supporting the development of the UK’s renewable heat market, a market that has been long forgotten by our policy-makers in the UK. We conducted extensive research on how we could best support renewable heat, and we concluded that investing in community renewable heat schemes would offer the greatest benefits all round.

The way it will work is as follows:  Good Energy will invest in renewable heat projects which benefit communities. Those communities then have an obligation to maintain and manage that system, and adhere to Good Energy’s Sustainable Procurement Policy.  When the renewable heat incentive is introduced by Government in 2011 these sites will receive a payment.  Good Energy will set up an independent trust to manage this income and further invest in other renewable heat projects, so producing an ongoing stream of investment into UK renewable heat. Now that is sustainable!

Projects we’re looking at include installing biomass boilers to replace oil heating in a community-owned public swimming pool near Bristol and a primary school near Bath. We’re really excited about moving into renewable heat as the UK potential is huge. Investing in renewable heat projects will help the UK take control of the energy we produce and use it more intelligently, reducing waste and reducing emissions, producing and delivering energy closer to people’s homes and businesses.

So now, not only will our customers be buying 100% renewable electricity – guaranteed and certified, but they will also be helping to grow renewable heat in the UK as well.  It’s another example of Good Energy’s innovative approach driving change through the energy industry.