UK needs to change its practices and attitudes to become renewable

With reform in the energy market looming and UK renewable targets becoming ever more focused, some in the greener side of the industry believe attitudes as well as methods need […]

With reform in the energy market looming and UK renewable targets becoming ever more focused, some in the greener side of the industry believe attitudes as well as methods need to change drastically. Good Energy’s Head of Business Development, Hugo House talked ELN through the advantages of creating your own energy:

To reach a 100% renewable future in the UK, we have to turn the energy industry upside down. That means shifting from brown to green fundamentally. We can’t have power stations that are hidden away, generation has to come from within the community and micro-generation delivers that absolutely. We feel very strongly that when people understand their power, they value it more and use it less,” said Mr House.

Good Energy ran their own Feed In Tariff scheme, the ‘Good Energy HomeGen’ before the government launched their version. But what exactly is a FIT? The Scheme encourages and incentivises small scale (classed as less than 5MW) low carbon electricity generation. The energy production from technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines or anaerobic digestion is sold back to the grid, effectively making energy consumption cheaper and greener.

Good Energy claim to have had an active role in lobbying when it came to the Feed In Tariff, but why do they think it so important? Mr House said: “The renewable obligation we were working with previously wasn’t triggering significant growth, certainly not at the smaller end of the market. It made it very tricky for small-scale domestic generation to get their reward.”

Since April there have been over 20,000 new solar PVs installed on the FIT scheme. Good Energy think the average solar panel of 3m x 5m will earn the owner roughly £870 annually and would basically earn back the cost of installation in just over a decade. The same is true with a wind turbine installation. With the electricity market review consultation due to take place tomorrow, those at Good Energy are hoping for a high carbon floor price to be introduced to encourage green energy usage.

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