I have just spent the last hour wandering through the maze of information on green energy for the home, accreditation, different pricing options etc. I found a few interesting snippets:
In NSW, according to the last (2006 Q3) Green Power accreditation report, more green energy was “sold” than was purchased - overall thankfully more was “bought” than sold - thanks to Victorian customers it seems.
Beware of buying “green” products that will not actually encourage ongoing renewable development. See page 4 of the Green Electricity watch report for 2006
To encourage renewable development ensure that your supplier is accredited. To meet accredited GreenPower requirements, two key criteria must be satisfied:
- GreenPower approved generators comply with stringent environmental standards.
- As from 1 July 2006, 100% of accredited GreenPower sold to all new customers must be sourced from ‘new’ GreenPower generation. GreenPower providers are required to introduce this 100% ‘new’ GreenPower requirement for all GreenPower sales made through contracts which were signed prior to 1 July 2006 as contracts expire and are renegotiated, but no later than 31 December 2008. ‘New’ renewable energy is sourced from generators which have been built after 1 January 1997.
Integral Energy is offering a “guaranteed no extra cost” green energy option - please note that it is only 10 % accredited.
- Non-accredited renewable energy products are electricity products promoted as other forms of ‘green’ or ‘zero carbon electricity’. No independent audit process or guidelines exist to monitor non-accredited renewable energy products so it cannot be guaranteed that purchase of these products will contribute to further investment in clean renewable energy in the future.
They do also offer an “Ingreen Pure” 100 % accredited option. We are currently with AGL, so i did a quick comparison of the cost of the 100 % Green energy options. Green options work by charging a premium above the base rates for “accredited” energy sources. Integrals base rates are higher than AGL’s but their premium is lower. On my analysis on our last quarters usage, AGL 100% option would still be cheaper.