Scottish Power Launches Renewable Energy Tariff

Scottish Power has become the latest energy supplier to offer a 100% renewable energy tariff, the firm has announced.

The energy supplier, one of the largest in the UK, claims its new tariff guarantees that 100% of the electricity bought is sourced from its own green energy projects. This is in contrast to some other suppliers’ ‘green’ energy deals, in which customers are buying renewable energy certificates rather than actual clean energy. Some of these suppliers then sell the certificates to a third party, thus not investing in any green energy at all.

According to Which?, these so-called ‘greenwashing’ energy tariffs are misleading for energy consumers who believe the electricity they are buying is coming directly from renewable sources. The energy regulator Ofgem also said earlier this month that it will be taking action against energy suppliers misleading their customers.

In 2018, Scottish Power sold all of its fossil fuel power projects and began focusing on renewable energy generation, such as offshore wind farms and solar power projects. The supplier said the money it receives from its new green tariff will be invested in developing these projects further.

“There are lots of suppliers running around, slapping a bit of green paint on their logo and trading bits of paper to claim they’re green,” said Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power. “But buying and selling certificates doesn’t help tackle climate change – building wind farms and solar projects is what we need to do.

“As the UK’s only end-to-end energy provider, we’re unique in being able to make this commitment. From today, anyone who signs up for our electricity on a fixed-price tariff can be confident that they are buying 100% green electricity – all of it sourced from our wind farms.

“More than that, they will be contributing to building the next generation of renewable energy, because money made from these tariffs will go into developing new wind farms and other green generation projects.

“This isn’t about playing games with bits of paper or certificates. This is the real deal – customers buying energy from renewable sources and helping us to build even more.

“As well as cleaning up the environment, we want to clean up how green energy is sold. My concern is that too many customers think they’re buying renewable electricity when all they’re buying is a renewable certificate. Today, we’re calling time on this so-called ‘greenwashing’.”