Good Energy to launch domestic gas offering

At the same time, the renewable energy supplier said it would be launching a Renewable Heat Incentive scheme to reward those generating their own heat from renewable sources.

Good Energy, which has over 25,000 business and domestic customers, said it was entering the gas supply market following research that showed its electricity customers would prefer to buy their gas from Good Energy rather than other suppliers.

"We have tested our gas systems with a small existing customer base and are now trialling a gas tariff on broker sites before we make a full launch to existing and new customers in 2009,” said Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive officer of Good Energy.

Davenport said the move to offer gas would attract more customers to Good Energy and – coupled with a renewable heat incentive – therefore offered “the most practical and effective” option to encourage growth of renewable generation around the UK.

“After eight years passionately promoting 100 per cent renewable energy, we couldn't just launch a standard gas product. We had to find a way to make it support our mission, but obviously we wanted to respond to our customer feedback,” she said. “We have decided that the most practical and effective option is to use revenues from the gas business to support and reward those customers who are generating their own heat from renewable sources and thereby reducing their use of gas and electricity.”

Good Energy, which currently gets its electricity supply from wind, small scale hydro, solar power and sustainable biomass, said its renewable heat incentive scheme would initially cover solar thermal, currently the most popular method of renewable heat generation in the UK and, according to Good Energy, the easiest to manage.

At the same time, the company said it would launch a research project to expand the scheme to include heat pumps, biomass and micro-CHP.

The launch of Good Energy’s renewable heat incentive follows the recent backing of so called ‘feed-in tariffs’ by the UK Government via the Energy Bill, to suppport small-scale renewable heat generation in the UK.

The Good Energy renewable heat incentive scheme is open both to households who already have solar thermal installed and those buying and installing new systems.