heat and power your home without fossil fuels

Ethical Consumer, Issue 189, March/April 2021£4·25 188 Jan/Feb 2021 www.ethicalconsumer.org £4·25 189 Mar/Apr 2021 www.ethicalconsumer.org
Heat and power your home
without fossil fuels Electricity & Gas suppliers Heat pumps Solar PV Solar thermal
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JOSIE WEXLER EDITOR
WHO’S WHO THIS ISSUE’S EDITORS Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange,
Rob Harrison PROOFING Ciara Maginness (Little Blue Pencil) WRITERS/RESEARCHERS Jane Turner, Tim Hunt,
Rob Harrison, Anna Clayton, Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Mackenzie Denyer, Clare Carlile, Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Tom Bryson, Billy Saundry, Jasmine Owens
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Simon Birch, Colin Birch DESIGN Tom Lynton LAYOUT Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner COVER Tom Lynton CARTOONS Marc Roberts, Mike Bryson, Andy Vine AD SALES Simon Birch SUBSCRIPTIONS Elizabeth Chater,
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WHAT IS ETHICAL CONSUMER?
This issue is focused on decarbonising your home, with guides to heat pumps, solar panels, solar thermal and electricity and gas suppliers.
The biggest priority for consumers is really heating. You can help a little bit, but UK energy generation will mostly have to be decarbonised at the national level, as our big renewable resource lies off the coast. And it is largely being done through regulation. In this area, voting with your vote is more important than voting with your wallet.
However, there is only one place where you can have a warm home, and that is at home. Heating is not very sexy – it’s hard to feel awe at the austere beauty of a heat pump or some cavity wall insulation. Surveys always show a general lack of knowledge or interest on decarbonising heating compared to other areas. But we hope to generate some more sparks of interest with this issue of the magazine, and to let you know more about what your options are.
We have decided to stop covering gas boilers, in recognition of the fact that we all need to be getting off them soon if we are to tackle climate change.
Taking it to the courts Climate change is also, increasingly, being fought through the courts. By July 2020, there had been 1,587 worldwide cases of climate litigation.1 Courts have even begun ordering governments to cut emissions: in 2019 the Dutch government lost an appeal in its supreme court and was thus obliged to cut the Netherlands’ greenhouse gas emissions by 25% on 1990 levels by the end of 2020.
We report in the electricity guide on page 16 on another case that is ongoing in the Netherlands, which could have important implications for ethical consumers.
It is being fought by the same lawyer who won the 25% cut, who is looking to repeat the success with a corporation. Royal Dutch Shell is being prosecuted for its role in climate change, with activists demanding not financial compensation, but that it cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels.
If Shell loses it could have widespread ramifications for how we can force companies to act. Sara Shaw, Climate Justice and Energy program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International, one of the NGOs bringing the case, said: “Our hope is that this case sparks a wave of climate litigation that can hold other corporations to account and bring on the end of the fossil fuel age.”
The verdict on the case is expected in May.
The growth in the Ethical Markets We also report in this magazine on our latest Ethical Markets report, which shows continued rapid growth in ethical-focused buying. And the figures that are available since the start of the pandemic seem to suggest that Covid is only increasing interest in ethical consumption.
Like this one, our next magazine will also be mostly covering quite large
purchases – we’re going to look at washing machines, dishwashers,
fridges and cookers. But so everyone doesn’t drown in white goods, we’re going to cover vacuum cleaners and
beer as well. See you then.
Ref: 1 London School of Economics, 2020 Global trends in climate change litigation
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British Sugar and neonicotinoids, supermarket plastic, brands supporting Burma military
08 Climate No to coal in Cumbria, Barclays and HSBC risk losing customers
09 Clothes Viscose update, stop genocidal trade, Boohoo buys Debenhams
31 Ethical Novice Heating
37 Money Action against war on Yemen
38 Boycotts Stop Hate for Profit victory, boycott Beijing Olympics
39 Almeria campaign News from Spain
44 Lush Spring Prize Apply for the 2021 Prize.
45 Beyond consumerism From advertising to a craft economy?
Green Home Energy 10 Introduction 20 Grants for heat pumps and
solar thermal
Gas and electricity 12 Introduction 14 Score Table & Best Buys 16 Lawsuits over climate
culpability 17 Energy companies’ global
exploits
Solar PV 21 Introduction 22 Score Table & Best Buys 24 Act to support community
schemes
43 Gift subscriptions Give a gift subscription to Ethical Consumer
48 Letters A regular forum for readers’ views
50 Inside view The great Brexit fiasco
NEWS SHOPPING GUIDESFEATURES
24
17
50
44
08
46 Ethical Consumer Markets report The state of the UK ethical market in 2019
Ethical Consumer March/April 20216
NEWS
Food & Home Supermarkets treading water in ocean of plastic packaging The third annual plastics survey conducted by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace UK showed that the 10 leading supermarkets collectively put almost 900,000 tonnes of plastic packaging on the market in 2019 – that’s the equivalent weight of almost 90 Eiffel Towers.
EIA Senior Campaigner Christina Dixon said: “We had hoped to see a much sharper downwards trajectory as strategies and targets bear fruit. Instead, we are looking at a relatively static picture which represents a drop in the ocean of tackling plastic pollution. The sector urgently needs to pick up the pace of plastic reduction.”
The survey also found that more than 1.58 billion plastic ‘bags for life’ (which contain more plastic than thinner single-use bags) were issued in 2019, a 4.5 per cent increase over 2018. This represents almost 57 bags per UK household during the year.
A key recommendation of Checking Out on Plastics III is for supermarkets to devise strategies which include specific targets for increasing reusable and refillable packaging and delivery systems, both in- store and online, as a way to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging.
Nina Schrank, Senior Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “All supermarkets should follow Sainsbury’s, and now Aldi, in committing to reduce plastic packaging by 50 per cent by 2025, at the very least. How these commitments are met is also crucial. Half of that reduction should come from reuse and refill systems, so we can ensure that packaging stays in those systems and out of the environment.”
Greenpeace is calling for 25% of packaging to be reusable by 2025, and 50% reusable by 2030.
Silver Spoon sugar linked to bee-harming pesticide The UK government has authorised the use of a pesticide believed to kill bees, despite an EU ban, following lobbying from British Sugar (Silver Spoon brand) and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). The EU banned use of most neonicotinoids on outdoor crops in 2018 after widespread campaigning highlighted the danger to declining bee populations.
Greenpeace has called the decision “short-sighted and dangerous”. A third of all bee populations – which help in the pollination of apples, beans, squashes and other crops grown in the UK – are in decline, according to the campaign organisation. Studies have found that significant declines in some British bee populations coincided with the introduction of the pesticide, which was widely used before the 2018 ban.
British Sugar is part of the Associated British Foods group, which also owns the consumer brands: Twinings, Kingsmill, Allinson, Patak’s, Jordans, Sunblest, Burgen, Jacksons of Piccadilly, Dorset Cereals, Primark and Meena. The group receives an ethical score of just 3.5.
The high profile of its Silver Spoon brand, coupled with the product’s clear link to the pesticide in question, and with a widespread opposition to bee- harming pesticides among consumers, may make this a decision the company comes to regret.
TAKE ACTION l Avoid the Silver Spoon brand and tell the company why. Silver Spoon have a contact form on their website: www.silverspoon.co.uk/get-in-touch as well as a twitter account: @BritishSugar. l Sign the Greenpeace petition asking the Environment Secretary to enforce a total ban on neonicotinoids – https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/ bees-share-friends
2018 2019
References: 1 Changing Markets Foundation, 2020. Talking Trash: the corporate playbook of false solutions to the plastic crisis - https://talking-trash.com
Fairtrade Fortnight This year the fortnight runs between 22 February and 7 March. It will highlight the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with such as those in Kenya, Ethiopia
and Honduras. Fairtrade Foundation will be hosting an online
festival bringing together schools, universities, businesses, supporters, campaigners and farmers from across the world to “choose the world they want”. l Go to www.fairtrade.org.uk/get-involved/current- campaigns/fairtrade-fortnight/ to find out more. l Check out our shopping guides on our website which feature Fairtrade products – chocolate, coffee, tea and bananas.
NEWS
Food & Home Are your products linked to the military behind Burma’s coup?
N E W S I N B R I E F
On 1st February, the Burmese military staged another coup. They seized control of the country detaining Aung San Suu Kyi (who won a 70% majority in the recent election) and handing power over to their commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing. Despite multiple warnings and decades of human rights abuses, the owners of Tetley tea and Fourpure, Little Creatures and Kirin Ichiban breweries remain involved with the military behind the coup.
“It is an absolute no brainer that companies should not be doing business with a military that is committing genocide and holding coups,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK said.
Civilians in the country, which is also known as Myanmar, face curfews, internet blackouts and ongoing refusal of their democratic and civil rights.
The coup follows a long history of violence and suppression by the Burmese military, which ruled the country as a dictatorship from 1962 – 2010, and has remained powerful in the decade since. It has been the perpetrator of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim population of Rakhine state – causing over 700,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Despite this, Tata (part owner of Tetley tea and Jaguar Land Rover cars) and Kirin (owner of Kirin Ichiban, Fourpure and Little Creatures beers, and part owner of Brooklyn Brewery)
French vegan restaurant gets Michelin star A vegan restaurant in Ares, near Bordeaux has become the first in the country to get a Michelin star. Claire Vallée runs the restaurant ONA – which stands for Origine Non Animale – which she launched in 2016 thanks to crowdfunding from supporters and a loan from a green bank after having trouble getting funding from a traditional bank.
There aren’t any vegan restaurants with a Michelin star in the UK though some Michelin-starred restaurants now offer vegan menus.
have continued to do business with the military, according to Burma Campaign UK.
Tata manufactures military equipment, which it sells to the Burmese military. It provides personnel carriers, as well as SUVs, that are used by some of the country’s top generals.1
TAKE ACTION l In our next issue, we are updating our shopping guide to beer so you can check out some alternatives to Kirin brands l There is a shopping guide to tea on our website for alternatives to Tetley. l For the full story and for a template email to Kirin craft beer brands asking them to end ties with the military, see our website.
Reference: 1 https://action.burmacampaign.org.uk/tata-make-tetley-tea-and-equipment- burma%E2%80%99s-military
Let’s make slave-free chocolate the law A recommended brand from last magazine’s Chocolate guide, Tony’s Chocolonely, has launched a campaign demanding that governments hold companies accountable by law for illegal child labour and modern slavery in their supply chains.
As we said in our guide, even though chocolate companies signed the Harkin-Engel protocol in 2001 to eliminate child labour, little progress has been made over 20 years.
Sign the petition https://tonyschocolonely.com/ petition and check out our chocolate guide.
Two new Best Buy Labels
Last month, two of our Best Buy companies began to display our Ethical Consumer Best Buy Label on their products: l Gusto soft drinks l Chocolat Madagascar Look out for them when you go shopping, or indeed when you stay in and shop online!
Tony’s Chocolonely’s four look-a- like bars are to raise awareness and inspire the chocolate industry to act.
NEWS
Climate Barclays and HSBC’s risky business A survey of customers who bank with Barclays and HSBC shows that these banks risk losing up to three million customers if they continue financing fossil fuels.
An online survey was carried out by ICM Unlimited on behalf of Market Forces, an organisation campaigning to stop banks from financing environmental damage. Its findings suggest that Barclays and HSBC benefit from a low level of awareness of their climate impacts, with four fifths (80%) of customers unaware that their bank is investing in fossil fuels.
When faced with the facts, however, the survey reveals that over one in ten (12.5%) customers say they would be very likely to consider switching banks. This would be the equivalent of three million customers leaving HSBC and Barclays for more ethical alternatives.1
Barclays and HSBC have collectively invested over £149 billion in coal, gas, oil, tar sands and fracking since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, making them the seventh and twelfth worst banks in the world respectively, and the two worst in Europe, for financing climate change.
The polling results come as both banks have come under pressure to rapidly phase out investment in fossil fuels from their portfolios, with many shareholders and activists pointing out the bank’s funding of fossil fuels is inconsistent with their stated support for the Paris Climate Agreement and their recent ‘net zero by 2050’ pledges.
Leading personal finance expert and founder of the Young Money Blog, Iona Bain, commented: “One of the most effective things we can do as consumers to fight climate change is to demand that our money is invested sustainably ... If you are one of the millions of customers of HSBC and Barclays who is horrified to learn that your money is being invested in fossil fuels, there are plenty of great ethical alternatives out there and switching is very straightforward. And don’t leave quietly! Tell your bank exactly why you are leaving to send a powerful message to the industry that their time for destroying the environment is up”.
For more information and to take action see Ethical Consumer’s guides to finance and visit Bank On Our Future’s website: bankonourfuture.uk/action
References: 1 Calculations are based on figures taken from Barclays UK Performance Review 2017 and HSBC Annual Report and Accounts 2019 2 www.theguardian.com/ business/2020/nov/30/shell-in-court-over- claims-it-hampered-fossil-fuels-phase-out 3 www.foei.org/press_releases/shell-climate- case-hearings-conclude 4 www.gov.uk/ government/news/uk-sets-ambitious-new- climate-target-ahead-of-un-summit 5 www. edie.net/news/11/Cumbria-coal-mine-- Government-refuses-to-block-UK-s-first-deep- coal-mine-in-three-decades
End the era of coal Sign the petition calling on the UK government to “Stop plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria now and commit to end the era of coal in the UK.” https://secure. greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/ uk-govt-no-new-coal
Kick polluters out of COP26 Sign the petition to kick polluters out of COP26, the annual UN climate conference: https://act.350. org/sign/kick-polluters- out-of-COP26
TAKE ACTION
Despite the UK Government’s recent announcements to cut greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net zero by 2050,4 it has refused to intervene in Cumbria County Council's decision to approve a deep coal mine in Whitehaven – the first facility of its kind to gain planning approval in 30 years.
The government could have called for an inquiry but has chosen not to do so. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick reportedly sent a letter to councillors stating that the Government is "committed to giving more power to councils to make their own decisions on planning issues."
The mine plans to remove 2.5 million tonnes of coal from beneath the Irish Sea every year for the production of steel in the UK and Europe.
More than 2,300 people have objected to the plan since 2017 in addition to campaign organisations that include Friends of the Earth, Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole (KCCH) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).5
Critics of the project argue that the mine could stifle progress towards aligning the UK’s steel sector with the 2050 net-zero target and that, quite simply, one new coal mine is one too many.
One coal mine too many
Extinction Rebellion’s Green Brigade staged their protest outside the county council offices in Kendal in February 2020.
NEWS
Clothes
There is some major reorganising going on in the fast fashion industry with the collapse and acquisition of some big brands. Debenhams, which had been in trouble for a while, has been acquired by none other than Boohoo in a £55 million deal. Boohoo
will not be retaining Debenhams’ stores – resulting in an estimated 12,000 job losses.1 The takeover will not actually have a huge effect on Ethical Consumer score tables as Debenhams (which was part owned by Barclays Bank) already had a score of 3, just below Boohoo’s score of 4.
Impacts from Covid, on top of a decade of closures and losses, has also seen the sudden collapse of Arcadia Group.2 It is again an online-only retailer that has snapped up the failing high-street brands, with ASOS acquiring Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT from Arcadia in a £305 million deal. It is expected to lead to the loss of up to 70 stores and thousands of jobs.3 Again, this won’t result in a dramatic change to our score tables, with ASOS having a marginally higher score of 8, compared to Arcadia Group’s 6.5.
As we went to press, Boohoo announced it had bought the Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands and online businesses from Arcadia with the further loss of 2,450 workers and closure of the high street shops.5
References: 1 www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/25/debenhams-close-stores-job-losses-boohoo-shops-covid-19 2 www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55139369 3 www.bbc.co.uk/news/ business-55884596 4 www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/11/international-criminal-icc-china-uighur-genocide-claims 5 www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55977587
A new report, ‘Dirty Fashion: Crunch Time’, ranks fashion brands on how well they are preventing pollution in their supply chain, particularly in relation to viscose.
Viscose, a common fibre used in clothing, is made from trees and plants, and has the potential to be very sustainable. Unfortunately, it is often created using highly toxic chemicals which can find their way into water systems, threatening the health of ecosystems and local people.
The Changing Markets Foundation, who produced the report, responded to the problem by creating the Roadmap to Responsible Viscose and Model Fibre Manufacturing, with support from Ethical Consumer and other campaign organisations. ‘Dirty Fashion: Crunch Time’ assesses the progress of signatories to the roadmap as well as those fashion brands that are yet to sign up.
D I R T Y F A S H I O N ARE FASHION BRANDS ACTING ON POLLUTION?
Some key highlights from the report: l ASOS, C&A, Esprit, M&S, Reformation and Tesco were among the most transparent and were found to have “published extensive lists of their viscose manufacturers on their corporate websites, including the names and, in some cases, full addresses of factories”. l Both budget and designer brands were given the worst ranking: Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Versace rub shoulders with sports giant Nike and low- cost retailers Costco, Forever 21, TJ/TK Maxx and Walmart.
Poorly performing companies will be marked down under our Pollution and Toxics category.
You can find out more and take action at dirtyfashion.info.
#StopGenocidalTrade Labour Behind the Label is asking people to show their support for a trade bill amendment which would allow UK courts to decide whether genocide was being committed. This could prevent the UK entering trade deals with states even if the UN has not officially recognised their actions as genocidal.
In the Xinjiang region of China, the Uyghur people are being subjected to multiple atrocities, including sterilisation, detention in ‘re-education’ camps and being forced to pick cotton that ends up supplying much of the global fashion industry. Claims of genocide have been brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC made a request for further evidence in December 2020 and kept the case open but has not made a ruling.4
Labour Behind the Label states: “Human rights groups have said that the fashion industry is virtually complicit in the [Uyghur] forced labour. The upcoming Trade Bill amendment could grant [Uyghurs] the right to petition British courts.”
Ask your MP to support the bill here: genocideresponse.org
Major shake-up of UK fashion industry
SHOPPING GUIDE
JOSIE WEXLER introduces four new shopping guides designed to help you understand the main options on your road to a zero-carbon home.
We have, as a country, officially signed up to completely decarbonise the UK by 2050. This means that we have 29 years to get all key sectors to net zero: electricity, transport, heating, industry,
food and land use. People have been producing proposals as to how to do
it for many years now. The main official body that advises the government on it: the Climate Change Committee (CCC), produced one in 2019, and has just released another. In 2019, it calculated that it was possible to do it at a “manageable” cost – 1-2% of GDP each year.1
It also reports to parliament on how we are doing. And it has not been complementary of late. We are missing nearly all our targets, and it really doesn’t look like a serious attempt is being made to rectify that. Given what we have committed to do, the measures in place to do it are profoundly inadequate.
Consumers may thus need to take more of the lead. This magazine is focused on the green home – what consumers can do on electricity and heating.
Electricity There is ongoing movement in the right direction. Renewable electricity generation in total grew by 9% since 2018, to 37%, with onshore and offshore wind generation rising by 7% and 20% respectively.3
This is the sector in which the UK is doing best. But even this looks better than it is, because we don’t just need to decarbonise 100% of our electricity. If we’re going to start using electricity for heating and transport, we need to decarbonise 200% of it.
Much electricity decarbonisation needs to be done at the national level – offshore wind is the UK’s really big renewable resource. But you can help by getting solar PV panels, which we cover on page 21, and supporting companies that are doing more to help build renewables, covered on page 12.
References: 1 CCC, 2019, Net Zero – Technical Report, https://www.theccc.org.uk/ publication/net-zero-technical-report 2 BEIS, 2019, UK Energy Statistics, 2019 & Q4 2019 3 BEIS, 2019, UK Energy Statistics, 2019 & Q4 2019 4 CCC, 2019, Net Zero – Technical Report, https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/net-zero-technical-report 5 Committee on Climate Change, 2016, Next Steps for UK Heat Policy
Heat and power your home
without fossil fuels
Heating – cutting demand Heating accounts for about a third of UK territorial greenhouse emissions (“territorial” means that it excludes imported goods). Our housing is old, leaky, and hopelessly dependent on fossil fuels – around 85% of UK homes use gas boilers.
Pretty much everyone agrees that the first priority has to be insulation. The CCC thinks that cutting heating demand by a quarter is realistic. This includes insulation in millions of lofts, cavity walls and solid walls.
There are government schemes to help pay for insulation – see page 20. And if you pay about £50, you can get an energy performance assessor to identify your options. (www.gov.uk/ find-an-energy-assessor)
Another way you can try to reduce your heating demand is by using smart heating controls, which can automatically adjust heating – sometimes room by room – from a phone or computer.
Heating options – electricity and gas Once we’ve reduced heat demand as much as we can, we then need to supply the rest.
Most scenarios envisage electric heat pumps being the backbone of a decarbonised UK heating system because they are around three times more efficient than a standard electric heater.4 We cover them on pages 26-29. They will cut your emissions immediately, by a significant amount, but they aren’t cheap, although you can get help with the cost.
As for direct electric heating – it can play a small role, although if everyone used it then it would require an implausible amount of electricity. While it has traditionally been regarded as much worse for the climate than gas, the grid has now decarbonised enough that high-heat retention storage heaters, which you can heat up at night when the grid is least carbon intensive, are starting to get more ambiguous. But they won’t reduce your emissions yet.
We decided to stop covering gas boilers in Ethical Consumer – the boilers last for about 15 years, so buying one now will probably lock you into gas heating for a while. We do really need to be getting off gas. The government appears to agree, as they are to be banned in new build homes from 2023 (just brought forward from 2025). However, if you do want to get a gas boiler, most of the companies that make them also make heat pumps or are also covered in other guides.
Other heating options – bioenergy Bioenergy is any fuel from plant or animal matter, including wood, alcohol, and biogas. We’re currently using some for heating – some people run biomass boilers, and some companies inject biogas into the gas grid.
Unfortunately, bioenergy has a huge problem, which is the amount of land that growing it takes up. This has led to a lot of concern about whether it is being produced sustainably or whether it is encouraging people to clear virgin habitat.
It also leads to the macro-level issue – whatever we do, there is only ever going to be a very limited amount of biofuel available. And absolutely everyone wants it. They want it because it is functionally identical to fossil fuel (fossil fuels are just biofuels that were made a very long time ago) and, as any heroin addict moving onto methadone knows, when you’re trying to kick an addiction, the easiest thing to wean yourself onto is the next nearest thing.
That is why, in the long term, bioenergy really needs to be allocated to the areas which need it the most – where there are no other options. The CCC, like nearly everyone else, concludes that using much bioenergy for heating “is not the long-term best use of finite bioenergy resources”. It calculates that biogas could sustainably provide about 5% of our heating needs.5 This includes biogas from waste.
As a result of these issues, we decided to stop covering biomass boilers.
Other heating options – solar thermal, hydrogen, district heating Solar thermal is a good technology but is limited – it can only supply a proportion of your heating needs, so you’d need to combine it with something else. We cover it on pages 32-35.
Another option is hydrogen, which could be pumped down the gas grid. Companies are starting to make ‘hydrogen-ready’ gas boilers, which could switch over to burning it. But unfortunately, there’s quite a bit more to it than that. The CCC puts it like this:
“When technical feasibility is demonstrated and decisions made, production (primarily from natural gas) will require a significant infrastructure programme to build dedicated new hydrogen transmission pipelines, hydrogen storage capacity (e.g. salt caverns), large volumes of CCS [carbon capture and storage] and hydrogen production capacity.”
It concludes that once you’ve factored in everything, hydrogen is unlikely to be cheaper for society than heat pumps. So it only uses it for a small number of homes in its scenario, in combination with a hybrid heat pump.
The only other option left is low-carbon heat networks, which can be heated by waste heat from industry or decarbonised power stations, or communal heat pumps. The CCC calculates that they could work for about five million homes.
Conclusion It isn’t easy to keep homes warm and light without burning that congealed ancient sunlight that was just handily lying around in the form of coal and gas and oil. But as one recent report put it: “decarbonisation of heating for the UK’s existing housing stock is possible, and can be achieved with average net investment of less than £10,000 per home”. Our guides will lead you through the options.
During 2019, UK grid electricity came from the following:2
l 41% gas l 3% oil l 2% coal l 17% nuclear l 11% bioenergy l 10% onshore wind l 10% offshore wind l 4% solar PV l 2% hydro
Electricity & gas suppliers SHOPPING GUIDE
Greening your electricity and gas CLARE CARLILE and JOSIE WEXLER explain what to look for when choosing your supplier.
The UK is taking steps in the right direction on electricity: about 37% of UK electricity now comes from renewables, and the
amount is slowly growing (see page 10). Yet, much more needs to be done.
Friends of the Earth states that 75% of our electricity must come from clean energy sources by 2030 if the UK is to meet its legally binding commitment to zero emissions by 2050.
Changes in the energy market The energy market has changed considerably since we last updated this guide.
Many of the small companies in our last guide have been bought out by larger, less ethical ones. A lot of other electricity companies have either been selling up or going bust. Two of our previous best buys were amongst them: Robin Hood has been sold to British Gas and Bristol Energy to
Together Energy, resulting in falling
scores and the loss of their best-buy status.
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from 9% to over 50% in just four years. The
largest energy companies in the UK now offer green
tariffs for domestic and/or small business customers. Many smaller companies specialising in ‘green’ energy have entered the market and seen huge growth in recent years.
Several of the large companies have also sold off their fossil fuel assets or are investing in renewables. Yet, the majority of ‘renewable energy’ tariffs make flimsy claims, with only a handful actually contributing to the energy transition in the UK. The worst of the bunch, Shell Energy, offers 100%
renewable energy while continuing to funnel 90% of its capital into fossil fuels. Shell and RWE (15% owner of E.ON) are both being sued by those on
the frontline of climate breakdown.
How meaningful are green tariffs? We have written before about the issues with ‘green tariffs’, because they operate on so many levels of detachment from physical reality.
Not only does everyone get the same physical electricity from the same grid, but the way the regulatory system is set up means that we all pay very similar renewable subsidies through our bills, whatever tariff we are on. This makes it hard to trace a causal line between buying a green tariff, – even from a specific company – and any more money going to building renewables.
We think that there are companies that are doing a bit more, which are worth supporting, as detailed below. But we suggest that it isn’t really worth thinking in terms of individual tariffs. Ultimately, which tariff you are on is just a matter of someone having shuffled some numbers around on a computer screen.
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Data correct as at Jan 2021. *Npower discloses its fuel energy mix broken down by regional supplier. The estimates here are an average of the figures given. **The information in this table is taken from company websites and completed questionnaires, from December-January 2021.
Meaningfully contributing to renewable capacity building for all energy supplied. No/limited meaningful contribution. Some fossil fuels or nuclear in energy fuel mix. >5% from coal and/or % renewable below UK grid average (37%).
REGOs One confusing aspect of the system is REGOs. Each bit of renewable electricity created generates a certificate called a REGO, which can then be sold separately from it. Legally, in order to call its electricity ‘100% renewable’, a company just has to buy an equivalent amount of REGOs. It doesn’t have to produce, or even buy, any renewable electricity itself.
The idea behind REGOs is that selling them should provide a small subsidy to renewable developers, although renewables get other larger subsidies as well. However, the problem is that about 37% of UK electricity now comes from renewables, while only about 1% of
the population are on green tariffs. This means that there are far more REGOs kicking around than anyone wants, and even though the big companies have started doing green tariffs again, prices are still very low, at around 30p-50p per certificate. This equates to only around 1% of the wholesale cost of electricity, so the subsidy they supply is extremely minimal.
We therefore don’t consider that buying REGOs is a meaningful way to support renewable energy development.
Making a meaningful difference There are two things that companies can do which we do consider makes a meaningful difference – building
renewables themselves or buying renewable electricity through ‘power purchase agreements’ (PPAs), which give generators security.
If companies are selling electricity as ‘green’ we think that they should be either building renewables, with a commitment to not build any further fossil-fuelled plant, or they should be buying sufficient renewable electricity through purchasing PPAs to cover 100% of customers’ electricity use.
We awarded marks to the companies that did this. Those that passed were Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK. These companies are marked in green in the table on the left.
Ofgem appears to be roughly in agreement with us. It has issued Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy UK with a permanent exemption to the bill price cap, on the basis that “by consumers being on the tariff, support is given to renewables to an extent that is materially greater than that which is brought about as result of subsidies, obligations or other mandatory mechanisms.”
Octopus Energy (which also supplies Co-op Energy) is likely not on the Ofgem list because it does not source 100% of the renewable energy for its tariffs from PPAs or owned generation. However, its 50% owner is one of the largest investors in renewables in Europe, and the company itself has recently started generating some of its own renewable power in the UK. We think this is worth supporting.
Ripple has a different business model altogether, which you can read about in Companies behind the brands on page 19.
Brand Coal Gas Nuclear Renewable Other Contribution to renewable capacity building in the UK
Ecotricity - - - 100% - 20% generated through owned renewables. Remainder purchased via PPAs.
Green Energy UK - - - 100% - All electricity purchased through PPAs.
Good Energy - - - 100% - All electricity purchased through PPAs.
Bulb - - - 100% - Some electricity purchased through PPAs (proportion unknown).
Co-op Energy - - - 100% - Supplied by Octopus Energy.
Octopus Energy - - - 100% -
Octopus is an investor in renewables and it does own a small amount of its own. However, it is 20% owned by Origin Energy the largest owner of natural gas-fired power stations in Australia.
OVO Energy - - - 100% - 20% purchased through PPAs for OVO energy customers (rather than group). 40% target by end 2021.
Ripple Energy - - - 100% - Electricity backed by PPAs from projects directly invested in by consumer. Remaining electricity supplied by Octopus Energy, via Co-op Energy.
Shell Energy - - - 100% - None
Together Energy - - - 100% - None
British Gas - - 24% 76% - All electricity for Green Future tariff purchased through PPAs.
E.ON 4% 42% 5% 46% 3% Generating energy through biomass plants.
People’s Energy 0.2% 3% 0.3% 97% - None
EDF 3.5% 9.3% 66.6% 20.5% 0.1% None
Npower* ~6% ~65% ~7% ~17% ~5% None
PFP 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
Scottish Power 5% 50% 6% 36% 4% All renewable electricity purchased using PPAs.
Utilita 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
Utility Warehouse 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
ENERGY FUEL MIX AND STEPS TAKEN TO BUILD RENEWABLE CAPACITY
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended section to acknowledge this.
A company cannot be a Best Buy if it scores worst for Supply Chain Management.
All the research behind these ratings is available for subscribers to see on the score tables on www.ethicalconsumer.org Definitions of all the categories are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings
[A] = tariff has some additionality [Vg] = electricity & gas certified as vegan
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BRAND COMPANY GROUP Green Energy UK [A] 14 H 1 Green Energy (UK) Plc Good Energy [A] 13 H h h 1 Good Energy/Green Britain Group People's Energy 13 H H e People’s Energy CIC Bulb 12.5 H H E Simple Energy Limited Ecotricity [A, Vg] 12.5 H h h H h 2 Green Britain Group Together Energy 12.5 H H 0.5 Together Energy Limited PFP Energy 11.5 H H h Sands Investments Limited Ripple (investment-based) [A] 11.5 h H h h h E Octopus/Midcounties/Ripple Octopus Energy [A] 11 H H h h Octopus Group Utilita 11 H H h h Utilita Group Limited Utility Warehouse 11 H H h h Telecom plus plc Co-op Energy [A] 8.5 h H h h h h h h h h h E Octopus/Midcounties Co-op E.ON 8.5 h H h H H h H E.ON S.E Npower 8.5 h H h H H h H E.ON S.E. EDF 8 h H H H H h H Electricité de France SA Scottish Power 7.5 h H h h H h H H h Iberdrola S.A. British Gas 7 h H H h h H H h H Centrica Plc Ovo Energy 7 h H h h h h h h h H h h OVO Group Ltd SSE 7 h H h h h h h h h H h h OVO Group Ltd Shell Energy 2 h H H H H H H H h h h H H H Royal Dutch Shell plc
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USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability. Green (good) = 12+ Amber (average) = 11.5–5 Red (poor) = 4.5–0
H = worst rating h = middle rating = best rating/no criticisms found
USING THE TABLES Positive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
All tariffs burn fossil fuels at the same rate Whatever company you buy from, however, the most important thing to be aware of is that the electricity you use still has the same carbon footprint – currently 0.26 kg CO2e per kWh.
It basically works like this – if you are on a green tariff and you turn your kettle on, some renewable electricity will be taken (on paper) from the electricity account of someone on a standard tariff and transferred to yours. Then a gas-fired power station will be turned up in order to replace it. In other words, your turning your kettle on causes a gas-fired power station to be turned up to supply it, just the same amount as when anyone else does it.
The electricity system is ultimately a shared thing. Most of the decisions about it are being made at the governmental level, and the cost of decarbonising it is being shared between everyone in the country. So, while it is good to buy from one of the companies that is making more of an effort to help, the key things are to keep minimising your energy use, and to keep pushing for political action.
The Best Buys are green tariff companies that are also building renewable energy capacity.
Our Best Buys are Good Energy, Green Energy UK and Ecotricity which are all helping to build new sources of renewable energy.
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Shell Energy claims to have a 100% renewable tariff, but continues to pump 90% of its capital into fossil fuels. EDF, Npower, PFP, Utilita and Utility Warehouse all also have a fuel mix with less than the UK average from renewables.
BRANDS TO AVOID
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Ecotricity
12.5
Table highlights Carbon management and reporting Our new carbon management and reporting rating really separates the good from the poor companies in this guide. Companies automatically received a worst rating if they owned fossil fuel-fired power stations and had no published commitment not to build any new ones. (No companies that currently owned fossil fuel-fired power stations were found to have a commitment of this kind.) Conversely, companies received our best rating if their entire model was geared towards energy transition, i.e. if they were primarily supporting new sources of green energy. For all other companies, we rated them as usual on their carbon management and reporting.
Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK and Ripple all received our best rating. Every other company in this guide received a worst rating.
Energy fuel mix Companies also lost half a mark under Climate Change if their fuel mix was over 5% from coal, or less than the national average from renewables (37%).
Renewables purchasing Companies got a positive Product Sustainability mark where we considered they were making a ‘meaningful contribution’ to renewable energy development, and were not involved in fossil fuels. We considered a meaningful contribution to be either owning or building their own renewables, or sourcing 100% of their renewable electricity through ‘power purchase agreements’ (PPAs). These were: Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK.
Other companies claiming to offer ‘renewable’ tariffs but just purchasing energy via REGOs lost half a mark under Climate Change for meaningless environmental claims.
Lobbying against climate action While an increasing number of companies are putting on a public show of supporting renewables, some also continue to be involved in lobbying against climate action in private. EDF and Shell have both been criticised for their membership of industry lobby groups that are known to have opposed robust climate measures. Shell was found to be a member of eight trade organisations opposing action just in Australia and the USA. Both companies lost a full mark under Political Activities.
Green tariffs and offsetting
SWITCHING TARIFFS
Many ‘green’ tariffs offer tree planting as part of your package, while others claim to provide ‘carbon neutral gas’ through offsetting emissions. However, many forms of offsetting – including planting trees – are deeply controversial and often ineffective. Trees do absorb carbon slowly while growing. However, once at maximum size they only sit and hold it while the forest remains there. If the land is ever cleared the carbon is released back into the atmosphere.
Forestry offsetting projects have also been linked to human rights abuses. People have been evicted to make way for tree planting, violating indigenous rights.
In 2019, Shell was criticised for the carbon offsetting scheme it used as part of its emissions reduction plan. Six NGOs, including Justiça Ambiental in
Mozambique and Amigos da Terra África do Sul, signed an open letter stating: “solving the climate crisis requires deep, urgent and immediate emissions cuts, which means that dirty and harmful energy must be held at source and cannot simply be ‘compensated’ [for] in other parts of the world.”
In fact, investing in renewables is one of a few forms of ‘offset’ that works. Energy companies would do much more for the planet if they focused on this, rather than planting trees.
If you do decide to look at a company that claims to have carbon-neutral gas or to offset some of your non-renewable energy, we’d advise checking carefully what form of offsetting they use.
We discuss carbon offsetting in more detail on our website.
Ripple is recommended if investing enough to cover 100% of your energy. It is an innovative company, that allows consumers to part-own a new wind farm. See ‘Companies behind the brands’ on page 19.
RECOMMENDED
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Recent lawsuits against companies in this guide could change the legal landscape for global emitters.
Environmental activists in the Netherlands took Shell to court in December, accusing the company of knowingly undermining global climate targets. The case states that Shell has violated Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life and the right to family), by failing to take action in line with the Paris Agreement targets.
Led by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, the suit represents “17,379 Dutch co-plaintiffs, around a million global supporters from 70 countries,” and six other Dutch organisations. It will argue that Shell knew of climate change since at least the 1950s and its large-scale consequences since 1986; yet invested in public relations campaigns that misled the public about Shell’s intentions and lobbied against climate action and policies. It will demand that Shell cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. A verdict is expected 26 May 2021.
The company is also being sued for its climate impacts in the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights.
Meanwhile, RWE (15% owner of E.ON) is being sued by Saúl Luciano Lliuya, a Peruvian farmer and mountain guide whose home is threatened by climate breakdown. Saúl lives in Huaraz, which has been threatened by flooding from a local lake as water levels rise due to melting glaciers. He is amongst 120,000 local residents, whose livelihoods could be destroyed if the lake floods.
Saúl is suing RWE in the German courts for €17,000, 0.47% of the protective measures he needs – the same percentage as the share of greenhouse gas emissions for which RWE is responsible since the start of industrialisation. If successful, the case could set a legal precedent for those impacted by climate breakdown around the world.
Fossil fuel companies sued for climate breakdown
Energy prices and fuel poverty Energy prices have risen considerably over the last two decades.
One in ten households in England and Wales are now in fuel poverty, meaning that if they heat their homes adequately, they will be left below the poverty line. In Scotland this rises to one in four. It makes the UK one of the worst countries for fuel poverty in all of Western Europe. Over thirty people in the UK die every day from living in a cold home.
Government action Since 2017, the government has introduced a series of energy price caps, limiting the amount that suppliers can charge for those on default or standard variable tariffs or prepayment meters.
However, much more needs to be done. One of the key government measures
to tackle high consumer energy prices is the reduced VAT rate on domestic electricity and gas, at 5% rather than the normal 20%. But critics say the tax break essentially acts as an electricity subsidy, encouraging higher energy use, and since gas still makes up 41% of the grid, a lot of it is going to fossil fuels.”
Libby Peake, Head of resource policy at Green Alliance says that the tax break “maintains the high-carbon status quo and does little to help those in fuel poverty,” and argues that the government
should instead ring-fence the VAT from gas sales, to be “redistributed to low- income homes and used to install energy- efficiency measures and low-carbon heating systems.”
Avoiding high prices From a consumer perspective, switching energy providers frequently can save money. Providers often entice customers through cheap rates that usually last for one year, but then automatically switch them onto a higher tariff, once the initial contract is over.
Citizens Advice has a price comparison tool to check whether you could be getting cheaper energy: https://energycompare. citizensadvice.org.uk
Low-income pensioners or low- income households also qualify for government support known as the Warm Home Discount, which is currently £140
off your bill each winter. The following suppliers are part of the scheme: British Gas, Bulb, Coop Energy, EDF Energy, Npower, Octopus, OVO, Scottish Power, Shell Energy, SSE, Utilita and Utility Warehouse. Ecotricity and Green Energy UK support it for the ‘core’ low-income pensioner group.
Energy prices and renewables So why have renewables not yet driven consumer prices down?
Renewable generation is now cheaper than fossil fuel – with solar the cheapest means of generating electricity in history. However, renewables still only account for, on average, 37% of our grid makeup, and fossil fuel prices are expected to keep rising.
Unfortunately, “Whichever plant was required to meet the last megawatt of demand is the price-setting technology,” according to Tom Edwards, senior modeler for Cornwall Insight. While the UK grid still relies heavily on gas, it is often this that will set the price.
In the long run, turning to renewables instead could cut consumer prices. But in the meantime, the government needs to provide support for up-front transition costs, in a way that supports those on the lowest income.
Saúl Luciano Lliuya is suing RWE over its role in climate breakdown, which is threatening to flood his home as Lake Palcacocha rises.
Dirty generation
Shell operates fossil fuel projects globally. The company has been condemned for its impacts on local environments and communities, particularly in Nigeria, where it is responsible for multiple oil spills, ongoing pollution and the displacement and violation of local communities.
Shell has been ordered to pay over $450 million to the Ejama-Ebubu community, for the pollution of their lands and waters, destruction of their livelihoods and multiple diseases resulting from a Shell subsidiary’s oil spill in Ogoniland in 1970. The company is also being sued by four widows of the Ogoni 9 who, in the 1990s, were convicted in a sham trial and hanged in secret by the state after opposing Shell’s actions in Ogoni.
In 2019, the Nigerian government decreed that Shell and several other companies should restart oil exploration in Ogoni – despite failure to clean up earlier spills in the region. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) says there is a “very real threat of violence from the oil companies and the Nigerian government in an attempt to force their way into Ogoni.”
“Our suffering has not stopped, pollution has increased. The clean-up exercise is not happening, yet Shell is planning to return back to Ogoniland for more oil exploration. We are ready
to resist any encroachment by Shell in Ogoniland,” said Lazarus Tamana, president of MOSOP.
Iberdrola (owner of the Scottish Power brand) is involved in renewable generation projects. Unfortunately, these include several massive hydroelectric projects which, while generating low- carbon energy, are also responsible for other environmental damage and the violation of indigenous rights. Neoenergia, a company 51% owned by
Iberdrola, is involved in the Belo Monte and Teles Pires dams in Brazil, which have displaced over 40,000 people, including many Indigenous ribeirinhos and Munduruku, Kayabi and Apiaka peoples.
Raimundo Braga Gomes was forced to move to Altamira, Brazil’s most violent city to make way for the Belo Monte dam. He told The Guardian in 2018, “I didn’t need money to live happy. My whole house was nature … I was rich … Now I’m poor. I have to buy everything I need … I used to have a living river, today I have a dead lake – and to get there I have to pay for transportation.” Gomes says that he signed a document after being told that his island would flood. “But I can’t read. I only know how to draw my name.”
After years of fighting, in 2019, 315 ribeirinhos families gained the right to establish a collectively owned Ribeirinho Territory beside the Belo Monte reservoir. Many though are still waiting to be allocated the land promised.
Also, in Brazil, the Teles Pires dam has destroyed Munduruku sacred sites, including a burial ground and the Sete Quedas waterfall. Archaeologists removed over 270,000 ‘artifacts’, placing them in a
museum to ‘protect’ them. In December, 70 Munduruku occupied the museum and reclaimed 12 funeral urns as well as other property.
EDF has been accused of human rights violations in Myanmar.
The company is involved in the Shweli 3 Dam in the Shan State of Myanmar. According to the Burma Campaign UK, the Shan State has been under the control of ethnic armed organisations. Preparations for the dam caused Burmese
Army battalions to move into the area, “triggering conflict that forced hundreds to flee their homes.”
“Now the project is moving closer to development and construction, there are fears of more conflict and abuses,” according to the campaign group. “Dozens of grassroots civil society organisations have called for a moratorium on dams and other major developments in ethnic states at the current time because of the link between large scale projects and conflict and human rights violations.”
The Ta’ang Students and Youth Union has stated: “The implementation of the Shweli 3 dam will threaten the lives of local people, prolong wars and jeopardise the peace process.”
Burma Campaign UK is asking consumers to write to EDF calling on them to withdraw from the project and commit to ending its involvement in dams in conflict zones. https://action.burmacampaign.org.uk/ edf-life-threatening-dam-burma
Some of the companies in this guide are involved in the dirtiest and most damaging projects around the world. Below, we run through just a few examples that show how energy companies continue to extract from and exploit poorer nations, exporting profits to shareholders in the rich world.
TAKE ACTION
Our sacred places were violated and destroyed. Our ancestors are crying … The Teles Pires and Tapajós Rivers are dying OPEN LETTER FROM THE MUNDURUKU
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Sheyla Juruna calls for the halting of three controversial mega-dam projects under construction in the Amazon, Brazil. “For me and my people the Belo Monte dam is a project of death and destruction.”
“When you see the government, you see Shell.” Esther Kiobel is one of four widows suing Shell over its role in the unlawful detainment, torture and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian state.
Around the UK, communities are coming together to generate, own, manage or reduce their energy. Three of the renewable energy tariffs in this guide explicitly support community generation.
There are 550 community energy projects in the UK. By offering communities the chance to define and control their own energy needs, these projects can not only help reduce carbon, but also address fuel poverty, increase local economic resilience and grow local engagement and awareness on energy and climate issues.
When companies buy energy directly from renewable generators using power purchase agreements (PPAs), they provide a guaranteed income and some security to those projects. In doing so, they enable them to expand and grow.
Good Energy states that it buys directly from community generation projects through its PPAs, thereby supporting their work and expansion. Co-op Energy also offers a Community Power tariff that is “100% powered by community-generated green electricity projects.” Ripple allows consumers to invest directly in a new wind farm, and become part of a consumer energy co-op. (See Ripple’s company profile opposite for more information.)
Community energy projects are also often looking for direct funding through share offers. For those who can afford it, it is a great way to support energy transition beyond just choosing a better tariff. It is also one meaningful way to offset some of your impacts, including, for example, if you’re on a prepayment meter that is not compatible with the tariffs offered by the better companies. Energy4All provides information about current and future community share offers on its website: energy4all.co.uk/share-offers
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION
Tariffs for green homes Those with solar panels, electric vehicles or heat pumps will have specific energy needs and may want different tariffs for these.
Heat pumps, batteries and electric vehicles Smart tariffs can be good for those with large, flexible electricity needs – for example using electric vehicles, batteries or heat pumps. They essentially offer two energy prices: a higher price when demand is high (and more energy is therefore being sourced from fossil fuel power stations) and a lower one when demand is low (and a greater proportion of the energy is therefore sourced from renewables). Households can decide – or even pre-programme tech – to charge a battery or car or turn on a heat pump when the energy price drops below a certain threshold. Some tariffs even pay consumers to use excess energy when demand drops below supply.
Jonathan Atkinson from Carbon Co-op says: “Heat pump owners can benefit, but they need to be able to integrate and automate their heat pump, and they need to be able to accept the loss of heat that this might lead to.”
Sarah Hughes, who owns a heat pump told us that she automates her energy use using Homely, which checks the provider’s smart energy prices and predicts temperatures to decide when to use the heat-pump to heat the tanks and house: “It’s grown from a PhD project over the last couple of years and it’s been working really well for us.”
We have more information on smart tariffs available here: www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/smart-home-smart-tariffs
Home generators For those generating at home, the Smart Export Guarantee scheme helps subsidise home generation. The government’s less-generous successor to the Feed-In Tariff scheme, it requires energy suppliers with over 150,000 domestic customers to pay home-generators for any excess energy they provide to the grid. The average sized domestic system is likely to be worth £50-100 from the scheme each year, going some way to subsidising upfront generation costs. Read more about it in EC184.
Some of our Best Buy and recommended companies offer special tariffs designed for the needs of those with green home energy needs:
Smart meters Smart meters provide both you and your supplier with information on how much gas and electricity you’re using. They replace your existing gas or electricity meters and
send automatic updates to your provider, so that your bills reflect
actual energy use. It also helps you control your energy use and make cuts.
And it is hoped that they will, in the future, be able to turn appliances on and off in
response to the demand and supply of electricity, to help deal with renewables that it isn’t possible to turn up and down.
Energy providers are required to install smart meters in businesses and homes, as part of the government’s ‘smart grid’ plan. The initial deadline for installation in all small businesses and homes was the end of 2020, but (partly due to the pandemic) this has been delayed until mid-2021.
If you haven’t yet had a smart meter installed, you should be contacted by your supplier over the coming months and offered one for free. You can also request one from your provider.
Several providers in this guide lost a half mark under Climate Change, after being fined by the government for failing to meet smart meter installation targets.
Ecotricity Fully Charged tariff offers a discounted energy rate for electric vehicle owners and half-price charging on the Electric Highway. Smart Grid being launched soon: a smart tariff.
Good Energy Electric Vehicle tariff has different electricity pricing for day and night. Green Heat tariff offers low unit prices and no standing charge in winter months.
Green Energy UK
TIDE tariff offers smart pricing. Export tariff pays self-generators for any excess energy they produce and provide to the grid.
Octopus Octopus Agile offers smart pricing, including paying you to use excessive energy from the grid when demand drops below supply. Octopus Outgoing pays self-generators for any excess energy they produce and provide to the grid. Octopus Go offers cheaper overnight charging.
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Companies behind the brands
Ecotricity was the first energy company to offer customers green energy, and has been involved in developing significant green infrastructure in the UK, including Britain’s first megawatt windmill and the country’s first grid-scale solar park. The company is committed to what it calls ‘Bills into Mills’ – taking the money from its customers’ bills to build new forms of green energy. 5% of the gas it provides is biogas, and is certified vegan by both the Vegan Society and Viva! – meaning that it does not use animal waste, unlike most other companies. We talk more about vegan energy on our website. Ecotricity is also owner of Ecotalk, a Best Buy for mobile phone networks, and Forest Green Rovers, the UK’s only 100% vegan football club.
Ripple is a really unique company. It allows consumers to invest in a new renewable project, becoming part of a consumer energy co-op. Once the project begins to operate, energy used by the investor will be backed by electricity generated, in proportion to their investment. Their bill will be reduced accordingly (or negated if the investment was large enough). Any energy needed above the invested amount (or before the project is operational) is provided by Co- op Energy (which, confusingly, is supplied by Octopus Energy!). The company’s first project is a single 2.5 MW wind turbine, which is due to start operating in summer 2021.
Ripple would essentially receive a different Ethiscore depending on whether you invested enough to cover all or just a portion of your energy use. The score on our table (11.5) reflects the second situation, where a consumer is partly
charity and academia. The project will use 5G and data-centric intelligence to look at ways to drive the local energy systems towards lower costs and lower carbon emissions. They predict cost savings of 25%, and say that it will meet the UK’s Fifth Carbon Budget target to reduce emissions.
Royal Dutch Shell is the seventh biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world since 1965, responsible for 1% of global emissions each year. The company has been linked to multiple ecological and human rights violations. It has faced lawsuits around the world for its role in oil spills, state violence, and corruption and bribes. A growing body of evidence shows that the company, which is registered in the UK, recognised the serious threat of climate breakdown since at least the 1990s. An internal report by the company in 1986 stated “The changes may be the greatest in recorded history.” Yet Shell has been accused of continuing to mislead its investors, oppose climate action and invest billions of dollars in fossil fuel operations for the last decades.
British Gas is the UK’s largest energy company and is owned by Centrica. Centrica is involved in fossil fuel and nuclear power generation. It was previously involved in fracking in Lancashire but appears to have since withdrawn from the project. British Gas faced workers’ strikes in January over ‘fire and rehire’ plans, pressuring employees to accept new contracts with worse conditions. The company has been accused of “using the coronavirus emergency as a smokescreen to shed jobs, and erode pay and conditions of workers.”
supplied by Ripple and partly supplied by Co-op Energy (and therefore by Octopus). If you chose to invest enough to cover your entire energy use, and were therefore only supplied by Ripple, the Ethiscore would be 15.5 – the highest in the table. The company estimates that this would cost £1,882 for two people in a two-bedroom house – but would save £3,267 in energy bills over the 25-year lifespan of the wind farm. Ripple takes an arrangement fee of 5% suggesting that the remaining 95% of your investment goes directly to the wind farm.
Together Energy is a social enterprise focused on addressing “the postcode lottery of career opportunities directly through our recruitment policies.” Over 90% of staff members come from the poorest 10% of postcodes in Scotland. The company says that it recruits “with an emphasis on youth, supporting people, many for whom school was not a positive experience and felt let down by the education system.” It works with the charity Street League, to find potential candidates, and teachers, educational psychologists and a local university to provide support towards gaining new skills and qualifications. Employees receive a living wage and weekly learning sessions covering everything from sitting a driving test to fitness, nutrition and money management.
Although the company is not directly contributing to renewable energy generation in the UK, it is involved in a project to design a smart local energy system in Warrington, alongside others in the energy industry, local government,
British Gas faced workers’ strikes in January over ‘fire and rehire’ plans.
SHOPPING GUIDE
Grants, incentives and quality schemes JONATHAN ATKINSON, a former writer for Ethical Consumer and co-founder of Carbon Co-op, a social enterprise that helps people and communities to radically decarbonise their energy use, gives us the low-down.
If you’ve decided to invest in energy efficiency, a heat pump, or solar thermal, there are a number of schemes available to help cushion the costs.
Green Homes Grant The Green Homes Grants was launched in 2020 in England and funds two thirds of the cost of a suite of technologies and energy efficiency measures up to a limit of £5000, or the total cost up to £10,000 for those on a low income or certain benefits.
Eligible technologies include solid wall insulation, loft top up, solar thermal and heat pumps – choose one of these ‘primary measures’ and a number of secondary measures become available including new windows and ventilation systems. It doesn’t cover PV.
The programme has been criticised, mainly due to the lack of appropriately trained contractors but also because of the administration of the scheme by an outsourced, private company which has led to delays in paying builders delivering the works. But the duration of the programme has been extended to March 2022, and the number of companies offering work will steadily increase over time. Visit the Simple Energy Advice website for more information: https:// www.simpleenergyadvice.org.uk
Shockingly, the Green Homes Grant doesn’t cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Schemes in these are much more paltry – see Home Energy Scotland, the Nest scheme in Wales, or NI Energy advice for more information.
Renewable Heat Incentive The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) covers England, Scotland and Wales. Eligible technologies include heat pumps and solar thermal panels, and also biomass boilers.
This scheme works differently – the homeowner covers the upfront installation costs and incentive payments are made for seven years, based on the amount of renewable heat made by your heating system.
You can get both the RHI and the Green Homes Grant for the same technology unless the grant covered the full cost of the installation, but the value of the Green Homes Grant will then be deducted from your RHI payments.
You’ll need to use an MCS registered installer (see box below) and in many cases fit specialist heat metering. The tariffs are fairly complex, and can change: depending on the size of your home and how much heat you use, so take a look at the government or Energy Savings Trust website to see what you could get.
Reduced VAT rates Before 2019, energy efficiency materials were subject to a 5% VAT rate. However, due to an EU ruling, the availability of the reduced VAT rate was limited. It is now available in one of two circumstances: l if you are over 60 years of age and/or on a selection of benefits or l if the value of the materials used in your project is 60% or less of the value of the whole job.
It’s also only applicable to certain improvements. It is a little confusing so we’d suggest talking to your chosen contractor if you think you’re eligible, as ultimately they will be claiming it.
Energy Company Obligation The Energy Company Obligation or ECO scheme is an obligation placed on
As mentioned above, the government mandated Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is a quality standard covering installers of certain low carbon technologies, in particular heat pumps and solar PV panels. Whilst not an absolute guarantee of quality, MCS offers a mechanism for best practice, advice and rectification. Many incentive schemes like the renewable heat incentive (RHI) require MCS qualified installers so look out for the standard. https://mcscertified.com/find-an- installer
MICROGENERATION CERTIFICATION SCHEME
the largest energy suppliers to invest money in energy efficiency measures. Unfortunately, what was a generous scheme when it was first introduced was subsequently labelled as ‘green crap’ by David Cameron and reduced in scope and scale. Now it’s available to a small number of households with access to certain benefits, for a limited set of improvements. The quality of works installed under the scheme has also come under severe criticism. If you are interested and you think you may be eligible contact your energy supplier for details.
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our website
SHOPPING GUIDE
Solar PV
JASMINE OWENS sheds light on key industry issues.
Solar PV technology has advanced massively – there are now panels so light and thin they can rest on a bubble without popping
it. Efficiency has shot up, from around 10% just a decade ago, to an average of around 18% for currently installed panels, and costs have plummeted.
There are nearly a million solar PV systems on UK houses, and if we gathered all global panels there would be enough to cover Dubai completely.
Government incentives hugely impact how many installations happen in a year: the slashing of Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) in 2016 triggered a sharp decline. But, although the government support is now limited, PV panels continue to drop in price. Research group Wood Mackenzie predicts prices will continue to fall, but at a slower rate. Solar-Trade suggests that installations dropped at the start of the pandemic (500 installations in April) but bounced back later in the year (4000 installations in October).
Number and Average Cost of annual new domestic PV installations
Year
16283
123,289
201,930
£7,500 £7,000 £6,700 £6,500 £6,500 £6,500 £6,500 £5,103£6,200
Carbon footprint and climate change A typical UK home solar PV system could save 1.3 to 1.6 tonnes of carbon per year. The average UK carbon footprint, including imported goods, is around 12 tonnes.
Solar PV has an initial carbon footprint from production, but it is small. The sum of all the energy required to produce a unit of solar energy (embedded energy) is around 4% of its output. And fossil fuels have carbon footprints from their production too – coal’s embedded energy is 11%.
Solar PV is one of the pillars of plans to decarbonise Europe’s power supply, and the European Commission described solar PV as among the most cost-effective electricity generation technologies, although it does vary on how far south you are. As we are a murky, windy island, solar PV is likely to play a smaller part in our decarbonised future than in Spain’s, but the Climate Change Committee suggests that it could contribute 10-15% of our energy in 2050, which is still significant.
But it’s worth remembering that just installing solar panels doesn't save an ounce of carbon. They have to be used to do that. James Page from JoJu states that, often, building developers install solar to tick a box to get planning permission, with no interest in continuing its operation. He stated, “I’ve found systems that have never been switched on.”
Energise Africa is an online impact investing platform enabling people to invest from £50 in ISA- eligible bonds issued by solar businesses operating across sub-Saharan Africa. Investments enable businesses to provide solar home systems to low- income families on pay-as-you-go payment plans.
INVEST IN SOLAR
Solar PV SHOPPING GUIDE
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended section to acknowledge this. A
company cannot be a Best Buy if it scores worst for Supply Chain Management.
All the research behind these ratings is available for subscribers to see on the score tables on www.ethicalconsumer.org Definitions of all the categories are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings
eth ic
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Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUP GB-Sol 11.5 H H H E GB Renewables Investments Ltd Sunshine 10 h H H H H E Sunshine Solar Limited Eco-Worthy 9 H h H H H H E Eco-Worthy Solar Technology Suntech 9 H h H H H H E Shunfeng Photovoltaic JinkoSolar 8.5 H H H H H H E JinkoSolar Holding Co Trina Solar 8.5 H H H H H H E Trina Solar Co., Ltd JA Solar 8 H h H H H H H E JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd Yingli 8 H h H H H H H E Yingli Green Energy Holding Canadian Solar 7.5 H h H H H H h H E Canadian Solar Inc Kyocera 7.5 h H H h H h H H Kyocera Corporation LG 7 H h h H h h h h H H LG Electronics SunPower 6.5 H H H H H H H h Total SE/Maxeon Solar Hanwha Q-Cells 6 H H H H H H h h H Hanwha Solution Sharp 5.5 h H H H H h H H h H Sharp Corporation Vikram Solar 5.5 H H H H H h H H h h Vikram Solar Limited Mitsubishi Electric 4.5 h h h H h h H h H H H h H Mitsubishi Group Rec Solar 4.5 H H H H H H H h H H China National Chemical Corp Panasonic 4 h H H h H H h H h H H H Panasonic Corporation Hyundai 3 H H H H H H H H h h H h h Korea Shipbuilding & OE
Et hi
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USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability. Green (good) = 12+ Amber (average) = 11.5–5 Red (poor) = 4.5–0
H = worst rating h = middle rating = best rating/no criticisms found
USING THE TABLES Positive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
Saving surplus energy Companies may also try to sell you batteries when you’re buying on-grid panels. Obviously you will need them for off-grid systems.
Batteries allow you to save surplus energy and take a step towards energy independence, if you want that.
But batteries are pricey, and their efficiency decreases over time, so you won’t necessarily recover the financial investment you make within the battery’s lifetime. And John Beardmore, managing director at T4 Sustainability Ltd., highlights that using batteries for on-grid systems is inefficient if you want to reduce overall carbon emissions, not just your own. Feeding excess energy into the grid and buying it back when needed could a better option for this.
If you have an immersion heater you could instead store the excess energy in water. From Spring to Autumn, while there is lots of daylight and you will probably not want space heating, a solar diverter unit can direct excess solar energy into heating your water. Units may cost around £300 and payback through savings could be around 3 years.
Smart Export Guarantee The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is currently the only solar panel funding available in the UK.
Typically, solar panels are wired up so that if your panel generates more energy than you use, the excess green energy is fed into the grid. The SEG enables small- scale low-carbon electricity generators to get paid by their energy supplier for this energy – up to around 11 p/KWh.
To be eligible, residential solar systems are normally required to be accredited by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) or Flexi-orb.
Our Best Buy in this guide is GB- Sol, which has a single site in South Wales. It only produces solar energy equipment, and most energy used by the factory comes from its own 30 kW solar PV array on its roof.
Sunshine Solar is a UK-based company that received our best rating for Environmental Reporting. Eco-Worthy is another company that did well across the board, and received a Company Ethos mark for focusing solely on renewable energy and not being in industries like fossil fuels.
RECOMMENDED
BES T BUY
Hyundai, Panasonic, Rec Solar and Mitsubishi scored worst in this guide.
BRANDS TO AVOID
GB-Sol
11.5
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) is a US-based non-profit that produces rankings of solar panel manufacturers, aiming to pressure companies to make panels safer for the environment and workers. It covers toxic chemicals, recycling and supply chains.
In the latest scorecard (2018-19) JinkoSolar received a perfect score of 100. Some other companies in this guide were rated by the Solar Scorecard:
Trina 99 SunPower 94 JA Solar 92 Hanwha Q Cells 90 LG 84 Hyundai 0 Kyocera 0 Mitsubishi 0 Panasonic 0 REC 0 Suntech 0 Yingli 0
Visit www.solarscorecard.com/2018- 19/ for more details.
SOLAR SCORECARD
Score table highlights We chose a selection of well-known solar PV brands, which make a mix of on- and off-grid panels, marketed for sale by UK installers. If you buy an on-grid panel you have access to electricity even if your panel’s not producing energy, as you’re still connected to the utility grid. Off-grid panels, used on e.g. boats or caravans, are not connected to the grid, so you only get electricity if the sun’s shining or you’re using power stored in batteries. Consumers cannot typically buy on-grid panels directly from manufacturers, so if you want a specific brand contact local installers to see if they can supply it for you.
Usually, second-hand is our first choice, and it’s true that second-hand solar panels are cheaper and can avoid waste. However, it can be a challenge to find panels that meet your specific requirements and if you accidentally buy a damaged panel it could be costly to repair. You should use an accredited installer, even if installing a second-hand panel.
GB-Sol and Sunshine Solar are two small UK-based alternatives in this guide, and Eco-Worthy is included as several people searched for it on our website.
Since our last guide, SolarWorld and SunSolar appear to have filed for insolvency. ReneSola and Tata no longer appear to offer residential panels in the
UK. And Solarcentury, which partnered with Ikea, has placed its UK solar panel offerings on hold.
Tax Conduct Ten (52%) companies in this guide received a worst rating under Tax Conduct, with GB-Sol, Sunshine Solar, Eco-Worthy, Suntech, Kyocera and Vikram being the only companies which did not get marked down for likely use of tax-avoidance strategies.
Solar companies causing climate- chaos Several ‘green’ brands are deeply involved in climate-chaos-causing industries.
Total SE is a French oil and gas multinational and ultimate parent company of the SunPower-Maxeon brand. Hyundai solar panels are ultimately owned by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd which is involved in oil and petrochemicals. Hanwha Corporation’s family tree includes aviation and weapons systems. REC Solar panels are ultimately owned by China National Chemical Corporation.
Brands were awarded a positive Company Ethos mark if they solely produced renewable energy technologies. These were GB-Sol, Sunshine Solar, Eco-Worthy, Suntech, Trina, JinkoSolar, Canadian Solar, Yingli, and JA Solar.
Even though this is a guide to renewable energy, several companies in this guide received a worst rating under our Climate Change category, and only four received a best – meaning that they report on their carbon emissions and how they are cutting t

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