A green deal

Mark 9 Comments

By Crispin Semmens (thirty metre blades) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Crispin Semmens (thirty metre blades) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
I got my electricity bill today and it was a bit less than I was expecting so that was nice!

I also got an email from my electricity supplier, Ecotricity, the other day.  They’d like me to persuade you to switch to them and then they’ll give you £50 worth of vouchers and me £50 worth of vouchers.  I would have £50s coming out of my ears if every reader of this blog were to switch to Ecotricity – so I hope you do.

How should I persuade you? Well, the electricity I get seems to work as well as all the other electricity I have ever bought – will that do? Maybe not. It is 100% green energy – that was the big appeal.

I am not going to plug Ecotricity hard because being a green consumer is a bit of a nightmare of doubt, indecision and confusion. At least it is for me.

Ecotricity sounds green and looks green – that’s why I joined them some time ago (and also because I was mightily pissed off with other suppliers (I must tell you about my ongoing experiences with Scottish Widows (capital ‘S’, capital ‘W’) sometime (not an electricity supplier, I know – it was the ‘mightily pissed off’ phrase that made me think of them again)).  Have a look and decide for yourself – and if you do choose them, then if you click on this code RAFE-O3V7J, or mention it if you sign up by ‘phone, then we’ll both be quids in.
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9 Replies to “A green deal”

  2. I too would like to put in a supportive word for Good Energy and remind your readers that “other green energy suppliers are available” and worthy of support in preference to the big carbon guzzlers. Whilst it is nice if electricity bills are less than expected, we should all be prepared to pay more if that means less carbon-rich fuel is burnt.

  3. My wife and I switched to them a few months ago: It was a painless process and the staff were superb! Amazingly following a query I was called back when they said that they would: other businesses take note – if you commit to calling a customer back actually do it! Also they were slightly cheaper than my previous ‘big name’ supplier so we can do our little bit for the environment and be better off: a win – win situation!

  4. “we’ll both be quids in”

    Intermittent energy generation will always need reliable, more or less instant backup to keep blogs and Tw*tface and the trains running. And the lights and kettles on and the central heating pumps and timers operating. “Short Term Operating Reserve is needed because at certain times of the day National Grid needs reserve power in the form of either generation or demand reduction to be able to deal with actual demand being greater than forecast demand and/or plant unavailability”, says the National Grid. A snip from a FAQ list for prospective STOR providers: “The majority of the revenue comes from availability payments, paid regardless of the number of times you are required, and is therefore predictable.” There’s loadsamoney sloshing around to bribe peeps to switch – it’s a reverse Robin Hood system.

    Here’s a thought experiment. Put a nice steak and some florets of broccoli in a National Grid blender. Blend until smooth. Now you have Ecotricity vegetarian broccoli soup. It will still be called vegetarian even when the broccoli supply fails in January during a freezing fog under a stationary high over the Azores.

    1. filbert – no-one has said (or at least, it wasn’t me) that we don’t need any more traditional forms of energy supply. Read Chapter 10 in Fighting for Birds and you will find that I am a supporter of nuclear as well as renewables. But we do need lots of clean energy, and renewables of many sorts are an essential part of the mix. I’ve just got off the phone to a company who I hope are going to mend the solar panels on my roof!

      I would like my steak and broccoli unblended please – but I would like both. You wouldn’t want to live on just one would you?

  5. Well what about green energy for your home – esp. solar panels, biomass boilers – and even ground source heat pumps. I think there’s a whole new world of affordable renewable energy for domestic and business customers – more appealing esp. as there’s funding available too! These guys are real specialists in all things energy + eco/green, see the link for more information :-

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