Visit: the site here.
Senior Greenpeace Campaigner Reece Turner said, “For the first time Australians can access an independent Green Electricity Guide which cuts through the mire of deals and shines a light on whether power companies are really as green as they claim.”
Twenty electricity retailers servicing Australian households are assessed against seven transparent criteria (see below), employing publicly available information and a survey which nearly all companies returned.
“Consumers rank energy providers up there with snake oil sellers and used car salesman. Power companies have earned a poor reputation for their foot in the door, hard sell tactics where confusing information rules the day.”1
What power companies are on offer varies widely between states. Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL currently provide electricity to over three quarters of Australian households and attract a ‘red’ ranking in the guide. The highest ranked retailer nationally – Powershop - is currently only available in Victoria, although it has plans to expand. Diamond, Aurora, Momentum and Red all attract a ‘green’ ranking in the national table. (Visit the Guide to find a state by state explanation and ranking.)
“Thankfully the days are gone where you were stuck with one power company. There’s now a new breed of retailers investing in renewables, eager to snare customers with an appetite for a renewable energy future.
“The biggest greenwashers by far are the top three energy retailers - EnergyAustralia, AGL and Origin Energy, which provide electricity to over three quarters of Australian households.
“The Dirty Three like to tout their green credentials but the guide shows their investments in renewables are relatively small and behind the scenes they are actively working to undermine Australia’s Renewable Energy Target.”
Mark Byrne, Energy Market Advocate for the Total Environment Centre said, “The guide follows in the tradition of Total Environment Centre’s earlier Green Electricity Watch rankings, which compared GreenPower products. This new guide is more ambitious, and is the only independent guide to the environmental performance of electricity retailers in Australia. It shows a big divide between the old companies which dominate the energy market and rely on burning coal and gas for electricity generation, and a new breed of forward-looking companies which are providing cleaner energy at a comparable price.
“Identifying a genuinely green electricity provider is no longer like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This guide will help consumers to flick the switch to a greener power company, send a message to the other providers to do the right thing by the environment and hopefully change the face of the electricity sector in Australia.
“But there is more we could know about retailers’ environmental performance, so TEC is calling for regulators to require retailers to disclose the emissions intensity of the total fuel mix - in other words, how much carbon pollution they are causing from all the energy they sell to customers, not just from the power stations they own.”
For more information and interviews:
Alison Orme Greenpeace Australia Pacific 0432 332 104 aorme@greenpeace.org.au
Mark Byrne, Total Environment Centre, 0403 070 442, markb@tec.org.au
Consumers who have changed power companies to greener retailers from the big retailers can be made available for interview.
High res version of attached graphic showing National ranking available on request - and state by state rankings.
NOTES:
1. The Green Electricity does not provide information or assistance to consumers on how to switch, but it is anticipated consumers will use it for this purpose.
2. Companies attract either a green, orange or red ranking. They are assessed against seven criteria: investments in fossil fuels or renewables, pollution intensity of their assets, support for - or hostility to - Australia’s Renewable Energy Target, offers to solar owners (additional feed-in tariffs), GreenPower products, investments in coal seam gas, and whether they are committed to not buying electricity generated by burning native forest timber.
3. Greenpeace Australia Pacific is currently campaigning to save the Renewable Energy Target and have a produced a detailed report, “The Dirty Three – Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL’s attack on Australia’s Renewable Energy Target” (June 2014).
4. As part of this project The Total Environment Centre has produced a factsheet on solar export prices available here.
[1] Energy Marketers’ Retail Tactics, CHOICE, April 2014.