Being The Change We Wish To See
 After reeling in the heat of this year’s summer, and then reading a recent article in the Scientific American, entitled “This Hot Summer Is One of the Coolest of the Rest of Our Lives“, we began to wonder whether our Tenants are also buying their energy from a 100% renewable energy supplier like we are. . . . After contacting a few of our Tenants to ask them this question, we became aware of the difficulty some were already facing with the proposed hikes in energy prices. While renewable energies combined (wind, solar, hydro and tidal) make up the bulk of energy being supplied to the UK grid (see article entitled “Differences between green energy suppliers“), as opposed to other types of energy generation (fossil fuels and nuclear), it is not always the cheapest. Asking some of our Tenants why they had not thought of moving to a supplier that provides 100% renewable energy, we noted two main points arising:
Thinking about these points, we decided to look into why we had decided to go ahead and still buy our energy from a 100% renewables supplier. Looking at the first point about receiving 100% renewable energy. When we spoke to our 100% renewable energy supplier and asked them how they could guarantee whether the electricity and gas that we used here at work was sourced from renewable generation sources only, while our neighbours might be buying from another energy supplier that did not use renewables in their mix, they informed us that it did not work like that. Basically, they cannot supply us directly with 100% renewables straight to our office or house. What happens is that, if we live in an area where the energy grid is supplied predominantly with non-renewable forms of energy, then everyone in the area will use the same mix of energy supplied regardless of whether they are buying from a 100% renewable energy supplier or not. What the 100% renewable energy supplier does guarantee is that, going by what amount of energy you use each year (on average each UK household uses 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas each year), they ensure that the same amount of 100% renewable energy is put back into the grid each year. This means that, while you might not be using 100% renewable energy each year, it means that – on average – other people will be using the 100% renewable energy that you bought through the grid. This energy could be generated and used all within a 3 month time frame too. But, ultimately, it does not really matter whether you are using it or someone else is using it. What matters is that the energy that you use over-all in a year is being generated by 100% renewable energy sources and, therefore, you are subsidising the use of 100% renewable energy sources. If everyone were to start buying from 100% renewable energy providers, then the entire UK would need to generated all their energy, all year round, completely from renewables sources. Thus, it’s up to us how quickly we all decide to make that shift over to renewables. Neat, eh? As to whether renewable energy suppliers are more expensive than other energy suppliers, the answer is yes, they probably are. Reason why? There is a good article here from UCL about why this presently is the case in the UK. Regardless of the above, we still believe it is up to everyone to make the choice to use 100% renewable energy whenever and wherever they can. Climate change will not stop just because we cannot afford to make that change. We know some of our Tenants might be finding it a bit hard to make that change at present and, as a result, we are willing to subsidise any of our Tenants who are willing to buy all the energy that they use each year from 100% renewable energy suppliers, just like we do. If they are eligible for this, we will do this via a reduction in their annual rent for every year they buy all their energy from any of the following three 100% renewable energy suppliers. The three 100% renewable energy supplier companies are:  If our Tenants show us that they have bought all their energy (electricity and gas) from one of these suppliers for one whole year – usually by supplying us with a complete year of energy bills from one of the above three suppliers – then they can receive a 5% discount in their rent for that particular year. As long as they keep supplying us with proof that they are buying all their energy each year (that is, all the energy that they use each year at the property they are leasing from us) from one the above three listed 100% renewable energy suppliers, we will continue to do this. . . . N.B. This offer is subject to negotiation and contract in each instance. Please contact us here for further details. |