Ecotricity green energy in the UK - special offer

^^ You just might have found a company that is not a scam, although I admit to skepticism that 1/2 of energy bill receipts make their way into new production.


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The company produces an annual pdf with some interesting data.
They say it costs 1.3 million sterling to get 1 MW of wind up and running;
that they charge about 12 p a kwh to residences;
and the BWE reports an average 28% capacity factor for onshore wind in GB

So ... does the company have an economically viable business ?
1.3 * 10^6 sterling per installed Mw
0.28 capacity factor - > 0.364 Mw = 364 kw

Year = 365 *24 = 8760 hours

Annual production = 364*8760 = 3,188,640 kwh
Sold at average of 0.12 pounds a kwh
- > 382,637 pounds a year of income.

Amortization schedule: 111,553.67 sterling a year, based on 7% apr and 25 year term.

At first blush I say yes, I'm happy to say.

 

Sadly, unless there is a limit which they are bumping against, these things don't necessarily help anything. They electric company takes part of their standard mix and assigns that to the ratepayer (and charges them more of course), then everybody else gets slightly less green electricity. The mix stays exactly the same.

And that is if the electric company is honest.

 

Corwyn, you just fingered the typical scam in the US. This company very well may be different, read their annual reports. They make it *very* clear that additional green production is the only green goal worth talking about, and report accordingly. I find the company interesting (and I start out *much* more skeptical than you,) since they seem to be building up a vertically integrated business from windmill to customer. In a fashion they are managing a co-op.

I'd like to hear your opinion after you read the reports they make available on their website.

 

Website suggests a serious business strategy. EcoBonds sounded good as an eco-investment...guess it was so popular, they sold out. Their 2010 fuel mix was ~60/40 Brown/Green counting gas, nukes, coal as brown. Expecting 50/50 for 2011. I don't know if a business model like that works in USA.

 

The windmills are indirect supplies of the company customers, so one interesting details is how energy is wholesaled in GB. I am pretty sure that GB also has a carbon tax that the company takes as revenue in addition to the utility tariff.

Neither coal utilities or energy resellers are to my knowledge high margin business activities in GB (just the opposite,) so a small part of me demands I prove to my satisfaction that this is not a pyramid scheme. Trust, but verify. I sure would like to see a detailed financial report.

 

Ecotricity is a green company that plays by the rules. They're not a big supplier as such but are a national company. In fact their boss, a Mr Dale Vince is a supporter of EV's and has even appeared on Robert Llewellyns 'Fully Charged' Youtube blog when they went out for a test drive in a prototype EV called the Nemesis;


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfP1P-ohN-w]YouTube - Fully Charged Nemesis electric supercar episode 009[/ame]

 

I'm with a company called Ebico https://www.ebico.org.uk/ which is not particularly green (only 10% renewables), but are a not for profit supplier and litterally offer the cheapest gas & electric in the UK and charge one rate for everyone. Sure it sounds a bit right on, but they don't charge more for poorer customers on prepayment meters or less for high users - just one cheap rate for everyone.

Their fuel mix (green, gas, coal etc) is not as green as Ecotricity but cleaner than the UK average https://www.ebico.org.uk/products-and-prices/fuel-mix .

Do they have companies like this or Ecotricity in the USA or is their energy market different?

 

Electricity suppliers in the US are a local monopoly subject to local political oversight. The lion's share of green energy is produced by wholesalers and sold to local utilities. Many utilities are forced by local regulation to have a certain green mix. In my town PV has political power, so PV fraction is a separate requirement for the utility. Politics being what it is, the utility pays me as a homeowner to produce energy from PV on my roof, but I receive no payment for producing solar thermal.

Yet another example of why subsidy is for the birds. Always inefficient, and almost always corrupt. It makes so much more sense to heavily tax high(er) consumption to cover externality costs, and let people conserve or produce clean energy to stay out of the expensive tiers if they do not like the real cost of fossil fuel.