The company said that the new tariff replaces Good Energy’s original core tariff which means that all the electricity Good Energy now supplies on behalf of its customers meets the standards set under the scheme.
The Green Energy Scheme has two main guiding principles, which ensure that every unit of green electricity a customer buys is properly certified.
The first principle is that the electricity supplied on behalf of the customer be entirely renewable and 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.
Another principle is that for every customer there must be an additional measurable form of carbon mitigation (additionality) to the equivalent of 50kg CO2 per customer per year – for Good Energy this means in the order of 1,600 tonnes per year in addition to providing 100% renewable electricity.
Good Energy will achieve its additionality by supporting the development of the UK’s renewable heat market.
According to Good Energy, heat accounts for 36% of the UK’s overall energy usage, creating 175 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Technologies such as solar thermal panels and biomass boilers can provide cost-effective, low-carbon heat solutions throughout the UK.
The company said that after conducting extensive research, it concluded that investing in community renewable heat schemes will offer benefits. 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.
Projects Good Energy is 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. These two projects alone could mean around 50,000litres of oil a year being replaced with biomass to generate renewable technology.
Juliet Davenport, CEO of Good Energy, said: “Good Energy has been campaigning for greater transparency for green tariffs for many years – we think the additional consumer confidence the scheme brings will really help grow the market for renewables in the UK.
“We are very pleased that we’re now able to transfer all our domestic and small-business customers to our new certified tariff, without any increase in price.”
