Good Energy to Offer Customers Clean Energy Ownership Through Partnership with Ripple

Renewable electricity provider Good Energy today pledged to offer its customers the opportunity to own a portion of large-scale wind or solar projects, after announcing a partnership with cooperative clean energy developer Ripple Energy.

Ripple offers its customers the opportunity to purchase a portion of a renewable energy project through a cooperative managed through a one-time payment that makes them owners of a share of a wind or solar farm. The buyer’s energy provider then purchases its share of the electricity resulting from the project and delivers it to the co-owner’s home via the grid, resulting in lower energy bills.

Good Energy customers will now be able to purchase a piece of one of Ripple’s projects and earn credit directly into their Good Energy account from the electricity generated by the project.

The company is joining Ripple Energy today as an expected supplier, with plans to launch as a fully-fledged supplier in the coming weeks. Once the project is launched, customers will have the opportunity to buy shares in Ripple’s new projects, such as the Whitelaw Brae wind farm, which is set to become the largest consumer-owned renewable energy site in Britain.

“Good Energy is the microgeneration specialist, helping hundreds of thousands of customers produce their own clean energy and source their power from small renewable generators,” said Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director of Good Energy. “By working with Ripple, we can offer them the opportunity to own their own share of a large-scale renewable energy project and reduce their bills at the same time.”

“We’ve always been big supporters of what Ripple is doing to make cooperative ownership of renewable energy simple and accessible, and it aligns well with our mission to help customers use clean energy in their homes and businesses. So we’re excited to take this step to work together. It means our rates, already recognized as some of the greenest on the market, can be even greener.”

The update comes just weeks after Ripple Energy confirmed that the UK’s largest “citizen-owned” wind farm was officially generating electricity for the first time. Part-owned by more than 5,600 people, the Kirk Hill wind farm, near Kirkoswald in Ayrshire, is made up of eight turbines with the potential to provide clean electricity to more than 20,000 homes and businesses, saving 29,667 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

Additionally, in April, Ripple revealed that British Gas, Ecotricity, EDF and E.ON Next had become the latest suppliers to offer customers the opportunity to purchase part of a wind or solar farm through one of its co-ops – joining existing supplier partners Your Co-op Energy – powered by Octopus Energy – and Unify Energy. The expansion brought the coverage provided by Ripple’s partners to 70% of homes in Britain.

“Co-operative ownership of renewable energy sites is really taking off in the UK, with Ripple demonstrating the tangible benefits available to everyone, no matter where they live,” said Sarah Merrick, Founder and CEO of Ripple Energy. “Good Energy’s support of this movement and their status as the final supplier partner further simplifies the process for consumers, making it even easier to get involved. Good Energy customers will be able to seamlessly own their own renewable energy sources without having to switch suppliers.”

“Alongside all our supplier partners, we continue to enable UK consumers to take control of their energy future, contributing to the energy transition whilst reaping the financial benefits for themselves,” she added. “With this latest collaboration, we are taking another important step in democratising the renewable energy sector, making it affordable and accessible to all.”

In related news, Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer, this week signed a fixed-price PPA with green energy company Boralex for the 106 MW Limekiln wind farm in the Scottish Highlands. The project, currently under construction, is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2024 and produce enough clean energy to power the equivalent of around 100,000 homes.

Moreover, SSE has this week signed an agreement with Ortus Energy to develop rooftop solar PV installations for its major commercial customers across Britain. As part of the deal, SSE’s customer arm, SSE Energy Solutions, will acquire 13MW of rooftop solar assets that have already been installed across multiple sites owned by six major corporate clients and will have an exclusive option to finance up to 130MW of new commercial solar projects over the next three years.

SSE said it would finance the development and installation of solar panels up front, allowing business customers to then pay a fixed rate for the electricity produced through long-term PPAs. Under the terms of the partnership, developer Ortus Energy will identify and develop the projects.

Finally, Centrica Business Solutions today announced that it has completed and powered up a 1MW solar farm at the Wolverhampton headquarters of aerospace and defence manufacturer, Moog Inc.

The project saw landlord British Gas lease roof space to Moog to install 2,200 solar panels providing the site with 800MWh of green energy over the next 25 years – around 10% of the site’s electricity needs – in a move expected to reduce the company’s on-site CO2 emissions by around 175 tonnes per year.

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