Our story
20 years ago, people in the UK had little choice about where their energy came from. 98% of UK energy was generated from fossil fuels – and with the growing threat of climate change, we desperately needed alternative and more sustainable options.
Good Energy was set up to give people the choice to do something about climate change by choosing renewable energy for their homes and businesses – and we’ve been doing just that ever since. Take a look at how we’ve grown over the years:
1999 – Juliet Davenport founds Good Energy as part of Good Energy Group PLC
Good Energy was an entirely new kind of UK energy company – a small, green sustainable supplier in an industry of coal, nuclear and gas giants supplying households and businesses. We want to give people a better choice: 100% renewable electricity from a company committed to growing the UK renewables industry.
2002 – Juliet Davenport becomes CEO of the Good Energy Group, and it makes its first share offering
More than 600 of our 5,000 customers purchase shares, allowing Good Energy Group to buy Delabole wind farm in Cornwall – the UK’s first commercial wind farm. In 2004 and 2007 Good Energy’s second and third share offering successfully raises new funds to help grow the business.
2004 – We launch HomeGen – the first scheme of its kind in the UK
To encourage more people to generate renewable energy, we launch the Good Energy HomeGen scheme to pay independent generators for all the energy they produce, even if they use it themselves. HomeGen wins a host of awards – and national recognition as an innovator. Homegen formed the blueprint for the Government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme, which launched in 2010.
2008 – We pioneer renewable heat incentives
After half our customers told us they want us to supply them with gas, and support renewable heat projects, this led to the development of our Gas tariff and award-winning HotROCs scheme. This becomes the UK’s first Renewable Heat Incentive.
2009 – Our £11.8million redevelopment of Delabole begins
The original 10 wind turbines at Delabole are replaced with four more powerful ones with a total combined capacity of 9.2MW, enough to supply around 7,000 homes with electricity – more than doubling its previous output. This was completed in 2010.
2012 – Making our mark on the London Stock Exchange
Good Energy is accepted onto the LSE’s AIM market – the world’s most successful growth market. Over the year, the company raises £4million in equity, to support the growth of the business.
2013 – Leading the way with the first local energy tariff
Good Energy launches an exclusive tariff for communities around Delabole wind farm – a big step in our mission to give people more choice over where they get their energy. The tariff gives households living close to Delabole a 20% discount and a ‘wind farm windfall’ bonus every year.
2013 – Solar bond issue
As a growing company, it was time to look for new ways to overcome financial barriers. The company launches its bond scheme, raising £14million, 85% of which came from its customers. This allowed Good Energy to push forward with plans to develop more solar generation sites – and shows how strongly its customers believe in its goals.
2013 – Raising a glass to new customers
Good Energy reaches a landmark 100,000 customers including our electricity, gas and home generation customers.
2014 – A warm welcome to Hampole
Good Energy’s second wind farm, this time in Doncaster, comes online. It offers the surrounding communities a special local tariff, just as it did in Cornwall.
2014 – Going solar
The company’s first two solar farms – Woolbridge in Dorset and Creathorne in Cornwall – come online, supported by our solar bond. They add more variety to Good Energy’s renewable electricity sources, and boost generation capacity by 6.7MW.
2015 – Time to shine
Four more solar farms add an extra 23MW of electricity – almost doubling the amount of renewable electricity generated from Good Energy-owned resources.
2015 – Supporting local communities
Good Energy becomes the first energy supplier in the UK to take and make payments in a local currency – the Bristol Pound. Another step forward in creating a local energy market.
2015 – Award wins
Good Energy named Company of the Year at the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards, Leaders of the Year at the British Renewable Energy Awards and Social Impact Company of the Year for the second year running at the Small Cap Awards. A good year for awards!
2015 – Good Energy shares available through the Social Stock Exchange
As a founding member of the Social Stock Exchange, Good Energy was proud to announce that its entire issued share capital would commence trading on the Social Impact segment of the ISDX Growth Market.
2016 – Consistent customer service recognition
Good Energy is awarded with another impressive score in the Which? energy company customer satisfaction survey, becoming the only energy company to achieve a score of more than 81% for 5 years in a row. This follows the company also topping three consecutive MoneySavingExpert polls by users for customer service.
2016 - A sunny start to the year
Good Energy’s seventh solar farm at Oaklands in Dorset goes ‘live’.
2016 – A record number of customers
Good Energy reaches a new landmark of over 200,000 customers including our electricity, gas and home generation sites.
2016 – Launching our carbon neutral gas
Good Energy launches a new gas offering which includes biomethane and is carbon neutral, supporting some amazing carbon reduction projects around the world.
2016 – More awards
Good Energy wins 'Company of the Year' and a trophy for 'Customer Service Recognition' at the Renewable Energy Association awards. It also picks up an award for 'New Energy Champion of the Year' at the New Energy & Cleantech awards.
2016 – New share offering
Good Energy raises over £3.1m through customer investment with significant oversubscription in its latest share offer. The majority of the 2,000 individual applications were made by Good Energy customers and will be invested in Good Energy’s operational platform, generation portfolio and to further strengthen its financial position.
2016 - Launch of Selectricity
Good Energy launched the UK's first peer-to-peer renewable electricity matching platform, Selectricity, allowing businesses to match their usage with local renewable generators.
2017 - One year of carbon neutral gas
Our greener gas offering hit one year one, helping thousands of our customers be carbon neutral for both fuel types.
2017 - Electric vehicle tariff
To help our customers get the best value for money when charging their electric vehicles at home, we put together a brand-new electric vehicle tariff.
2018 – Researching vehicle-to-grid technology
The HAVEN Vehicle-to-Grid research project commences. Good Energy works with Honda and the University of Salford to explore how electric vehicles can function with home energy systems such as solar panels to provide storage for renewable power and support the flexibility of the national grid.
2018 – Giving back to the community
We announce the sale of one of our solar farms back to the local community, enabling it to continue to benefit from generating 100% renewable electricity.
2019 – The climate movement goes mainstream
Following the release of the IPCC report into the dangers of global heating of just 1.5ºC in late 2018, 2019 becomes a year of unprecedented climate action. Greta Thunberg’s solo school strike sparks a global movement which includes the biggest ever climate protests. Extinction Rebellion shut down the centre of London to call for urgent climate action. And the UK government declares a climate emergency and commits to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Good Energy’s part in all of this? As well as continuing to give people a practical way to fight the climate crisis, we provide an online platform to local youth strikers to help amplify their message.
2019 – Accelerating the EV revolution
We launch our One Point EV charge point installation service for businesses. This enables businesses to become part of the growing EV charging network and support the increasing take up of EVs.
2019 – Putting greenwashing in the spotlight
We have long spoken out against greenwashing, the practice of energy companies selling ‘100% renewable’ electricity tariffs even when they don’t source electricity directly from renewable generators. This year, the media took notice. Which? magazine investigated green claims made across the energy industry – and gave Good Energy their highest green rating.
2019/2020 – Making managing customer energy accounts simpler and greener
We invest in a digital customer services platform to enable us to support more customers more easily. This also means we can offer a greener, paper free service to an increasing number of people.
2020 – We secure our largest ever clean power deal
A three-year deal with Ørsted see us secure enough offshore wind power for 36,000 homes. This represents 12% of the power output of Ørsted’s Westermost Rough Windfarm, located off the Yorkshire coast.
2020 – Our gas gets even greener
As of 1st April, 10% of the gas we supply is biogas – up from 6% previously. 10% represents the maximum percentage of the UK’s gas demand that can be met by sustainable, UK generated biogas. We update our portfolio of offsetting projects to include improving clean energy access in India, China and Turkey.
Ready to switch?