Ecotricity Green Electricity and Gas Tariffs Reviewed

There’s a new kid on the block in the green energy game who go by the name of ecotricity in the UK and they price match the big 6, can it be true? We find out.

With almost all of the big 6 energy suppliers in the UK, if you want to go green and have all your electricity from 100% renewable sources or opt for a tariff where they match your “brown” energy use with renewable energy you’ll likely pay a premium for this service.

But not with Ecotricity green electricity as they price match completely and in fact there are now 32,000 homes powered by these guys (OK, the big 6 have the rest of the 30 million homes) but this is a start.

Who Are Ecotricity?

The ecotricity electric (and gas) green company specialise in not only providing customers with 100% electricity from renewable sources but spend the most per customer of all the energy companies in investing in new green technology and renewable sources.

Ecotricity has no shareholders so pumps back as much money as possible in developing wind farms and other sources. In 2008 ecotricity spent over £400 per customer in new sources of green energy whereas their nearest competitor, Scottish Power, spent £102 per customer into one wind farm.

Ecotricity Wind Farms

The green energy ecotricity uses themselves comes from their wind farms based around all areas of the UK. Currently there are 34 wind parks with 105 wind turbines which is enough to power 183,000 homes per year thus saving 370,000 tonnes of CO2 per year

Ecotricity Tariffs

The big commitment from ecotricity is that they will price match the big 6 on their standard tariffs. Normally the standard tariffs are the most expensive in any case and most green tariffs from the traditional companies are more than this as well. If you are just shopping on price then these tariffs won’t currently beat any of the best buy tables, but if you are looking for a green tariff that is either mostly all renewable sourced or 100% then these will be cheaper than the big 6 (and ecotricity invest more profits back into developing more renewable energy sources as mentioned above). There are two types of tariffs on offer:

• New Energy Tariff – uses power from their wind farms and topped up with brown energy from the wholesale market. Currently 45.6% of this tariff’s energy comes from renewable sources.Example prices: London – with the regional supplier EDF standard tariff £443.07 , Midlands with the regional supplier Npower £456.92 – both are priced match on this tariff
• New Energy Plus Tariff – uses ecotricity energy from the wind farms plus green energy from other sources so this is 100% from renewable sources. Example prices, London £460.40, Midlands £474.24

Prices shown above are for average consumption of 3,300 kWh units per year as defined by ofgem.

Green Gas is on its Way

You may not have thought possible but ecotricity are investing into a green gas concept which uses organic waste mainly from unwanted food and then turned into gas at green gas mills which is then injected into the gas grid. As around two thirds of us have electricity and gas as a dual fuel tariff this is a great investment and is coming our way.

Our Thoughts

Ecotricity is investing fast into really building a green tariff directly from their own wind farms. Back in 2005 only 20% of their energy was completely green and in 2009 this is up to 45.6% and with the investments being made this is quickly growing towards the 100% mark.

If you want a completely green tariff at competitive rates then we would recommend you at least get an online quote from ecotricity and relax knowing that much of your bill is being re-invested back into new renewable energy sources for the future.