Did you know that more than 80% of our electricity in Australia is generated by burning coal? This creates greenhouse gas pollution that is contributing to the overheating of the Earth - commonly known as climate change (or global warming).
If all Australians switched to clean, renewable energy (in Australia this is known as GreenPower) today, Australia’s total greenhouse pollution would be cut by 30%. That’s the equivalent of what’s pumped out by more than 40 million cars!
What is GreenPower
The GreenPower site defines GreenPower as: “government accredited clean, renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste. GreenPower reduces greenhouse pollution and is purchased on your behalf by your electricity company.”
GreenPower is delivered to your house or office in the same way as your existing electricity. There are no special adapters to use and no special equipment to install. All you need to do is contact your electricity supplier and ask about their GreenPower options.
How much does it cost?
GreenPower costs a bit more than standard “black” power (power generated from burning coal). How much more depends on a number of factors, including your provider, where you live, whether or how much of your electricity is off-peak, and how much GreenPower you purchase.
You can usually choose how much GreenPower you want as a percentage of your total electricity usage - a range of 10% (i.e. 10% GreenPower/90% “black” power) and 100% GreenPower (i.e. no “black” power) is available.
All this might sound a bit confusing, but if you are thinking of switching to GreenPower, you can usually get an estimate on how much more your bill will be by calling your electricity provider and asking them about your options and what the extra costs would be.
Some suppliers offer GreenPower for as little as $1 extra a week. Be sure to shop around - there may be a number of different electricity providers that service your area. It’s fairly easy to make the switch.
You can also save money by conserving electricity which will help keep the cost of switching to a minimum.
What if I can’t afford 100% GreenPower?
If you can’t afford 100% GreenPower straight away, you can still make a difference by switching your home power across to GreenPower - using just 10% GreenPower makes a difference.
Every bit of power we get from renewable energy not only helps the environment through less emissions, it also helps to support the companies that are doing the right thing and encourages other companies to start moving towards renewable energy sources.
Conserving electricity - by switching to energy-efficient light bulbs like compact fluros and switching off appliances that use standby power - can significantly reduce the amount of electricity you use, saving you money and making GreenPower more affordable.
How do I switch to GreenPower?
It’s easy to make the switch, all you need to do is contact your electricity supplier and ask about their ‘accredited GreenPower’ options.
The Australian government’s GreenPower website has a list of accredited providers . WWF has also put together a similar list that includes links to each of the website pages related to the provider’s GreenPower products - which will hopefully save you a bit of search time.
When you are shopping around, keep your last few bills handy so that you can tell the salesperson the kilowatt hours (a measure of how much electricity you use) from your bill.
If you’re connecting your electricity for the first time (or if you haven’t kept your bills) see if you can get the details from the bill from a friend who lives in a similar size household.
How do I know that my electricity provider is the “real deal”?
Some electricity suppliers offer both accredited and non-accredited ‘green’ products. You may have read in the news that some of these options are not as green as others. How do you tell which ones are good, and which aren’t?
The easiest way to tell is to make sure that the options you are looking at are ‘accredited GreenPower’ - also recognisable by the GreenPower ‘tick of approval’.
Accredited GreenPower is power that has been certified by the Australian government to be “renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste”.
Find out more
Some of these links are mentioned above, but I’ve listed them here for quick reference:
- The GreenPower website
- The official government website on GreenPower.
- Power to Change
- The Power to Change campaign is raising awareness about climate change and GreenPower, and also offers accredited GreenPower to customers.
- Electricity Watch
- A review of Australia’s electricity retailers carried out by the Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) - a non-profit organisation with members from green groups around Australia. They’ve rated Australia’s electricity retailers so you can see how they perform when it comes to GreenPower.
- Accredited GreenPower options
- An up-to-date list of GreenPower providers with links to provider web pages and contact phone numbers.
