The 2015 Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and the Total Environment Centre provides a state-by-state ranking of electricity retailers to help consumers switch to a more environmentally-friendly power supplier.
Top-ranked Powershop, based in Victoria, received 8.6 out of a possible score of 10 for supporting the renewable energy target, its public position against coal and CSG investment, its promotion of GreenPower and its good offers to solar customers.
Diamond Energy came a close second with a score of 8.5 out of 10. It was commended for generating electricity with no fossil fuel power plants, its low GreenPower surcharge and its public positions against coal and CSG investment. Both companies have also directly invested in renewable energy generation in Australia.
Victoria-based supplier People Energy was named Australia’s least green electricity supplier with a rating of just 1.9. It was ranked bottom of the 23-organisation league table for providing only basic energy efficiency information to customers, failing to offer GreenPower, not having standing offers for customers with solar energy, failing to report sustainability information and for failing to identify its positions on key green energy topics.
Simply Energy came second last with a score of 2.9 after lobbying for reductions in the renewable energy target, its poor promotion of GreenPower and its limited sustainability reporting.
Among the “Dirty Three” electricity suppliers Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL – who between them supply electricity to more than three-quarters of Australian households – Origin Energy (5.7) came eighth overall, AGL (5.1) came ninth and EnergyAustralia (4.9) ranked 10th.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific climate campaigner Nikola Čašule said:
“Australians support renewable energy, but finding out how green your energy provider really is can be difficult. By giving consumers the information they want, they can change to a greener supplier and hopefully motivate the industry to become cleaner and greener.
“Some companies have made good progress this year, but Origin Energy, Energy Australia and AGL’s continued average performance should still be a concern for Australians.
“For all the big three’s marketing about how green they are, their initiatives are small compared to their investments in coal and gas and they still leave a lot of room for improvement.”
Mark Byrne, energy market advocate at the Total Environment Centre said:
"Retailers can choose where they put their money, and likewise consumers can vote with their wallets by choosing retailers that are doing the right thing by investing in renewables, supporting solar customers and promoting GreenPower.
"Together, we can change the way energy is made and sold in Australia without the expense of going off-grid."
The electricity sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and 87% of Australian electricity still comes from coal and gas fired power stations. The remaining 13% of electricity comes from renewables.
The 2015 rankings were decided by seven criteria: emissions, renewable energy positions and investments, GreenPower products and promotion, support for distributed generation (ie solar), fossil fuels policy and investments, energy efficiency performance and promotion and environmental transparency.
The Green Energy Guide 2015 can be found here:
Sydney, 13 November 2015 – Powershop and Diamond Energy were ranked as Australia’s greenest energy suppliers for the second year running in the country's only independent and unbiased ranking of household electricity suppliers.