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Green energy market in the United Kingdom
There are two classifications of green electricity product currently on the market. These are described as ‘green source’ and ‘green fund’. Green source consumers buy electricity from suppliers marketing renewable generation. Although the electrons entering customers’ homes and business cannot be guaranteed as green (because all electricity is mixed within the grid), the customers are guaranteed that for every unit of electricity they consume the corresponding amount of renewable generated electricity will enter the network over the span of one year.
Green fund customers on the other hand, donate money into a fund that supports new renewable capacity or other related initiatives. Green funds are often administered through an independent body established by the supplier or through an unrelated charity. In some cases the fund will pay for new capacity to be developed by the utility and in others it is invested in new generation by a generator. Green fund contributions are matched by the electricity supplier, in some cases.
Fourteen electricity suppliers offer a green electricity tariff in the UK. Green source products are offered by eight of the suppliers and four suppliers offer a green fund scheme. Two companies offer both green source and green fund to their customers. All but three companies sell their green product to domestic customers and roughly half are available throughout Great Britain, with the other half offering their product only regionally.
At the end of March 2000, the total number of customers to have signed on to green energy was 13,500 customers across the country. The majority of these are domestic customers with only about 100 non-domestic users including government, business and NGOs. This equates to less than 1% of UK households. About 40,000 MWh of green energy were sold over the second quarter of 2000.
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