Interesting Times
Energy
May you live in interesting times is the apocryphal Chinese curse supposedly reserved for one’s enemies. In the energy industry right now, we certainly do.
The referral of the sector to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is just the latest interesting scene in a long running drama. It’s a drama that really began twenty years ago with privatisation: an experiment that has failed to deliver (like all privatisations, arguably) and is clearly not up to the very significant challenges ahead. (more…)
Friday 13th
Energy
It’s an interesting date and I’m a fan of it. Partly I suppose because I’m ‘anti superstitious’.
And partly because it’s the date of two important birthdays; of a son and a windmill.
Friday the 13th of December 1996 – is a day I remember well, the day we installed our very first windmill after a five-year planning battle. The year Ecotricity got going.
They don’t come often, but there’s another Friday the 13th December coming this year, 17 years later – and that first windmill is still going strong.
As is Ecotricity.
Our mission remains the same: to turn our customers’ Bills into Mills and change where Britain’s energy comes from.
And this year we made big strides in that direction, with planning permission to build one of the biggest wind parks in England. It’s big enough to almost double our current fleet of windmills – matching the last 17 years’ work in one go. And it’ll make a significant contribution to Britain’s energy independence, powering almost 40,000 homes for the next 25 years.
That’s Bills into Mills at its best yet.
There are two other big changes this year. (more…)
2012 – the Year of the Electric Car..?
Transport
One Saturday, mid-November 1896, a small group of pioneering motorists set off in some of the first horseless carriages – their plan was to drive from the Metropole Hotel London to the Metropole Hotel Brighton. We know this now as the London to Brighton run.
Their aim was to demonstrate and promote the recently invented motor car. In addition, they celebrated the new Road Act, which that year raised the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph and removed the need for a man to walk in front of each motor vehicle waving a red flag. Quite a breakthrough for drivers of the day.
The cars taking part that day included those powered by electricity, steam and the internal combustion engine (petrol): back then it was a three horse race, technology wise. The internal combustion engine eventually won out of course. Fast forward to today and we take for granted the quite incredible travelling capability of modern cars. We Britons collectively drive 250 billion miles a year in our 30 million cars – all but 2,000 of which have internal combustion engines. (more…)
Why green electricity prices go up when brown prices do – Part 2
EnergyA better explanation of our recent price rise
You may remember a post I wrote entitled “Why green electricity prices go up when brown prices do” in which I first attempted to explain this seemingly counter-intuitive situation.
I also recently wrote to all of our customers explaining that we needed to follow the recent price rises (of the Big Six) and why. In it I tried to provide a simple explanation of why green electricity prices go up when brown electricity prices do. I received a number of e-mails and letters from customers who had further questions about that and related issues.
I’ve spent the last few nights considering how best to approach this and writing what follows below – it’s a more detailed explanation of why our prices need to follow the market (for now). I hope in the process to better explain the way the electricity market works, how this affects what we do and at the same time cover the majority of questions asked.
Here we go… (more…)
Does ‘Good Energy’ cause new generation to be built?
EnergyThis post was inspired by a couple of comment posters who got in a discussion about Good Energy. Andre – in my opinion the claims (you refer to) of Good Energy don’t stack up. The idea that by selling existing green electricity to someone you can encourage someone else to build a wind farm is tenuous at best (more…)
Why green electricity prices go up when brown prices do
EnergyI often get asked to explain why the price of green electricity rises when the price of brown electricity does. I realise it’s counter intuitive. To understand it you need an understanding of how the market works. Here’s my attempt to explain: (more…)
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