Deception point

By switching to a green electricity tariff, most consumers would expect to make a positive contribution to the environment. But the government is allowing electricity suppliers to sell new green consumers existing green electricity, so this is not necessarily the case.

Suppliers are the principle beneficiaries from this arrangement. By law, they have to meet a percentage of their total supply from renewable sources. But in allowing suppliers to repackage this electricity and to sell it on to consumers as green electricity, the government is effectively deterring the construction of any new green generating capacity. Worse, by allowing green electricity to be siphoned-off from a supplier's total electricity mix, the green content of the remaining customers mix is diluted (see page 12).

Leaving aside the sense of deceit many consumers are likely to feel, knowing their benevolence has done little except reward a major utility, the real danger for the government in allowing this situation to persist is that it stands to undermine the public's confidence in scores of other bona fide green initiatives.

What the green electricity market needs now is transparency. If suppliers are to be permitted to continue this practice then they should be required to inform "normal" customers how much less green their electricity is in the mix each quarter.

It's not all bad news…

How refreshing to hear the Chancellor mention low-carbon technologies in the budget. Funding of £50m to fit schools and hospitals with solar panels and wind turbines will give the micro-renewable sector a timely boost. And the prospect of Britain becoming a world leader in new energy sources becomes possible with the creation of a National Institute of Energy Technology. While it is doubtful that Gordon Brown has made sufficient funds available to match his green rhetoric, it is encouraging that such technologies are at least still on the government's radar.