Hi folks, I’m Jon Mullen the Energy Evangelist.
Today we’re talking about green energy.
There has been a lot of confusion and vague definitions about what can be described as green energy. However, there are also a lot of purists who say that you will never receive green energy because you are not directly connected to the supplier. Let me seek to put some sense back into this discussion.
Nearly everybody is connected to the same UK electric energy network. The two biggest electric energy network controllers are National Grid for England and Wales, and Scottish Power for southern and central Scotland. All generated electricity is connected to these networks whether they be green or nuclear or coal generated.
In the first quarter of 2020 the total electricity supplied to the grid was 47% from renewable or green energy, nuclear 15%, Gas 31%, and coal or other approx 5.5%.
The purists are correct to say you cannot get 100% green energy unless you are directly connected to the supplier, such as a wind farm or a photovoltaic panel farm. The more people who choose to buy green energy the more green or renewable energy will be pumped into the energy network. So it is our choice to make change.
However, some suppliers will claim to be green and they will buy what are called offset certificates. So it’s just like I produce energy from coal, but for every £1 of co2 created by coal energy I plant 15 trees which consume the same amount of co2.
Other suppliers will claim to be green and they will supply electric from both green and nuclear. So we need to make decisions about how green we want to be.
There are now a lot of green advocates who used to hate nuclear, but have now changed to accept it as a less polluting solution. Technology will continue to change, but we need to continue to ask questions.
So that’s enough information for today.
I’m Jon Mullen the Energy Evangelist.
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