Which? names Ecotricity as a top Eco Provider

• The amount of power they generate or buy directly from green generators

• How much of the electricity they sell is renewable

• Whether they match customers’ energy use with renewable power

• Whether they use carbon intensive power like electricity generated from fossil fuels

• How much green gas they sell

• Their transparency – are they open on their website about their energy sources?

“Our Eco Providers are long-standing sustainable frontrunners” – Which? October, 2021

Building new sources of green energy

Which? placed particular importance on how much green power a supplier generates themselves, or buys directly from green generators.

It’s a key question. For energy companies, the only kind of action that makes a genuine difference in the fight against climate change is building new sources of green power. Anything else is just fudging around the issue.

We’ve always done this - we call it turning bills into mills. This was directly recognised by Which? who noted that Ecotricity “puts customers’ money towards building new renewable generation.”

We’re always conscious of the fact that it’s our customers who make all this possible. We have a responsibility to choose projects that will make the biggest impact in creating a green Britain.

That’s why, right now, we’re building two large solar parks next to two of our existing wind parks in Leicestershire and Devon, using the latest bifacial technology. We’re also installing our first grid-scale battery, to store green energy for when it’s most needed.

Next year, we’ll be bringing the first ever geothermal energy to Britain, generating electricity from hot rocks deep under Cornwall. We’re also building the country’s first green gas mill near Reading - this will make enough green gas for 4,000 homes, using grass as a feedstock.


Let’s end greenwashing

Choosing a green energy supplier isn’t always simple because it can be a murky business. Greenwashing – claiming something is greener than it really is – has become so widespread in the energy market that the regulator OFGEM is considering taking steps to control it, and we hope they do.

Which? says: “It’s so murky that the government department BEIS has called for evidence to ‘explore the extent of “greenwashing” in the energy sector’. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published new guidelines on making environmental claims too.”

If you choose green energy for your home or business, you might expect that the money you pay would go towards increasing the amount of renewable power in the National Grid. That isn’t necessarily happening right now. Certificates called REGOs (“Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin”) can be used to make energy sound greener than it really is.