How does Octopus Energy
do green power?
We're on a mission to make the world's power 100% green, as quickly as possible.
You get fairly-priced green tariffs today, while we help build a smart, sustainable, low-carbon energy system for tomorrow.
We Operate
Renewable
generation
to Power
Homes
We Buy From
producers
and counting
We Pay
their home
solar power
our customers
have generated
enough to
power
a year
We Offset
of Co2
customers' gas
between 2018 - 2021
cancelling
New York
charging networks are
powered by our 100%
green Electric Universe
an open research lab devoted to researching a
low carbon energy system
low-carbon heat R&D centre
The company that's done the most to advance renewables in the UK
2020 · 2019
Green electricity
We want to make renewable energy the easiest choice for everyone – so all our electricity tariffs are 100% green, often for less than other suppliers' non-green tariffs.
We work out how much power our customers are taking out of the grid annually (a mix of power sources, from wind to fossil fuels) and ensure an equal amount of renewable energy is added into the system in its place over the year. Not only does this make your electricity effectively net zero – it gradually helps make the energy system greener for everyone!
How we help our customers and the whole of the UK have greener energy usage
£3.4bn worth of renewable generation
Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe's largest investors in renewable power, managing 300+ UK green energy producers (mostly solar and wind farms).
Last year, this was enough to power over 1.2 million homes. We plan on making that 50 million homes worldwide by 2027.
Find out more
Buying energy from 190+ UK green energy producers
We buy renewable energy directly from more than 190 producers here in the UK via contracts called ‘Power Purchase Agreements’, or PPAs. Read more about the wind, solar and hydro generators we work with.
Octopus-owned power
We've begun buying our own green energy generators: two wind turbines, one in East Yorkshire and one in South Wales – and that's just the start.
Through the Octopus Fan Club, communities who live closest to our #1 Fan and #2 Fan get their power up to 50% cheaper when the wind picks up.
Want a wind turbine on your land? We match-make willing landowners with enthusiastic communities who want their own green electricity source. Understand more about how wind power is the future of UK energy and learn how you can be a part of it.
Find out more
Ofgem approved renewable energy certificates
Official certificates such as 'Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin' (REGO) certificates are crucial in the UK's energy system – used by all greener energy suppliers to certify and track the renewable power flowing through the nation's wires, and give funding directly to UK green producers.
We buy enough of these alongside energy on the open market to cover all our customers' energy, which pumps even more investment into UK renewable generation.
Home solar panel and battery installation
Be energy independent and save up to 90% on your electricity bill with an Octopus Energy solar panel and battery installation. If you're ready to generate and store your own green electricity, and sell excess energy back to the grid then find out more.
Want to learn more about how renewable energy is generated? Watch our videos on wind, hydro and solar power here.
Unlocking green power for the people
We believe in forging deep connections between communities and their green power. That's why we buy green power from nearly 100 small community-run energy cooperatives (like Repowering London's project in Brixton, pictured above). Through these energy projects, locals own and run their own green generation, and profit is reinvested in local charity or environmental initiatives.
It's also why we pay thousands of Brits a fair price to generate solar power at home on our smart export tariff, Outgoing Octopus.
Upgrade to carbon-neutral green gas
The majority of UK homes still use natural gas, a fossil fuel. Gas accounts for a huge chunk of your household carbon footprint, and 13% of all UK carbon emissions.
Our mission is to get rid of gas for good, by transforming the system into a 100% green, all-electric one. But while we work on that, we've got a way you can reduce your carbon footprint by offsetting the emissions from the gas you use at home.
Go Supergreen!
Get green electricity and carbon neutral gas on our Supergreen tariff for just a few extra pounds per month.
Upgrade nowWe balance out our Super Green customers' gas emissions through carbon reduction projects around the world with the help of Renewable World.
Carbon offsetting with Renewable World
More than 770 million people worldwide do not have access to energy. Renewable World has been our main carbon offsetting partner since 2018 – bringing innovative renewable energy technology to fuel-poor communities worldwide.
We work out the carbon emissions generated by our Supergreen customers' gas, and support projects especially curated by Renewable World to offset that amount of CO2 – effectively balancing the emissions out.
Recently in Rwanda, we have helped give local communities access to clean, efficient cookstoves that improve air quality in the home and reduce carbon emissions.
The projects
Renewable World brings low-carbon technologies, from solar-powered microgrid systems to low-carbon cookstoves, to areas with limited access to safe, reliable energy.
They work in close collaboration with local experts and leaders, to ensure their projects really deliver what the community needs. These clean energy hubs bring whole new income streams, training and careers into the communities, and return agency to local people and businesses who've been constrained by unreliable, high-polluting energy sources.
Learn more about our projects
Go Supergreen!
Support Renewable World's projects and go completely carbon neutral for just a few extra pounds per month.
Upgrade nowDitching gas for good
We love that there's a way our customers can offset unavoidable gas emissions from their homes. Long-term, we're focused on building a world that doesn't rely on gas at all.
We're at the forefront of the race to find affordable, electric solutions to cut fossil fuels out of transport and heating, two incredibly gas-intensive industries. Read on to find out about that work, and how we can build a truly green, all-electric world.
Moving to net zero
Fossil fuel energy is one of the world's biggest polluters. To have any hope of halting climate catastrophe, we need to change the energy system on a global scale.
We're pushing system-wide changes to end all reliance on fossil fuels in energy.
Our technology is unlocking a 100% green smart energy system: making the most of the renewables sources of energy we already have, changing how and when all of us use power, and finding new ways to get around and heat our homes. Crucially, we're making sure customers get rewarded for making green energy choices.
Cutting-edge smart green energy tariffs
Our one-of-a-kind smart tariffs are a whole new way of buying and using green energy, rewarding you for moving your energy consumption to the 'greenest' times of day and integrating with smart devices to create the blueprint for a low carbon smart home.
Thousands of homes across the UK use these innovative beta tariffs, getting paid to use up green power, or to export power from their solar panels, to support the UK energy system and reduce the need for fossil fuels.
Find out more
The heat pump revolution
We've made it possible for the greenest solution in home-heating - the heat pump - to be installed & run for a similar cost to a gas boiler. When paired with the £5k government grant, 90% of our quotes beat the national average cost. With home heating making up 14% of the UK's overall emissions (largely thanks to gas boilers), we see huge potential for change.
Over 1.7 million people replace their boilers every year, find out how we're revolutionising heat pumps as the planet friendly alternative, and cutting carbon by around 70%.
Find out more
Electric transport for all
Transport contributes nearly 1/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, so we're working to make EVs the simplest, most affordable choice for all.
Octopus Electric Vehicles is bringing electric vehicles to people and businesses through impartial advice, leasing packages, EV chargers, smart energy tariffs – even super innovative stuff like our vehicle-to-grid charging trial, Powerloop.
We also power 1/3 of the UK's public EV charging networks with our 100% green electricity: discover the Electric Universe.
Find out more
Works With Octopus
There's a world of smart tech that works seamlessly with our cutting-edge smart tariffs. Our Works With Octopus programme highlights products and devices which can help to make your home smarter, cheaper and greener.
Find out more
Investing £3bn into diverse green hydrogen projects
We're investing £3 billion to build plants that turn green energy into hydrogen, providing a reliable, green fuel source for heavy industry, where electrification is much trickier.
Octopus Hydrogen also has tentacles into a number of projects, including providing green hydrogen to power the development and trials of zero-carbon 'powertrains' (like hydrogen-powered engines) for some of the world's first commercial hydrogen aeroplanes – helping pave the way to greener flight!
Driving critical research into low carbon energy
We've invested £5,000,000 into the creation of the Centre for Net Zero, an independent open research lab, investigating and developing crucial research into the low carbon energy system of the future.
Green Energy: Frequently Asked Questions
What is green energy?
Green energy or renewable energy is energy that is collected from resources that naturally replenish themselves, such as sunlight, wind, rivers and geothermal heat. Whereas, non-renewable energy is sourced from resources such as coal which does not replenish within a human lifetime and also pollutes the environment. At Octopus we use renewable energy sources primarily from wind, solar and hydro (water) sources to power our 100% green electricity. As the majority of UK homes still use gas, we also provide our Supergreen tariff where customers can offset the carbon emissions produced by the gas part of their energy usage.
What is Octopus Supergreen?
Octopus Supergreen is the very greenest you can be with Octopus: a fully carbon neutral green energy tariff, fixed for 24 months.
All our electricity tariffs are 100% renewable as standard (read about where our energy comes from), plus, on Supergreen, any carbon emissions generated from gas are fully balanced out through Gold-verified carbon credits from incredible projects curated by our partner Renewable World.
How can a smart meter make me greener?
Smart meters make you more aware of your energy usage, so you can think about ways to reduce what you're using. But beyond that, they can also be great tools to support and balance the national energy system. Automatic, half-hourly smart meter readings give customers access to "dynamically-priced" energy tariffs such as Agile Octopus, where you can pay less to use energy at times of day when it's 'greener' i.e. on a particularly windy or sunny day, or in the early hours when demand is really low and there's lots of surplus green power not being used.
This way, smart meters can help encourage people to use less power at the busiest times to avoid the need to burn extra fossil fuels to meet the extra demand. Collectively, this could make a real difference – and we're working to show this through our available smart tariffs like
Octopus Agile,
Octopus Octopus Go,
Octopus Outgoing Octopus and occasional large-scale smart trials like the
Octopus Big Switch On.
Why do you choose carbon offsetting instead of 'green gas'?
We've chosen not to buy extra biogas because it is very expensive, not scalable and often not as green as it appears – the materials used to produce it can sometimes be transported long distances across continents and prepared in really energy-intensive ways.
Instead, we're laser focused on a world where we don't need gas at all. We help make electric transport and heating simple and affordable, and bring more renewable energy sources into the system.
If my energy comes from the grid, how can it be 100% green?
Green energy suppliers can't pump clean electrons through separate wires to your home. Instead, all energy generators, green and dirty, pump energy into the electrical grid, and it's this 'energy mix' that powers your home. Suppliers like Octopus are green because we invest in renewable generators in a number of different ways to support them to pump even more green power into the system.
We buy energy from green generators to match some of the energy our customers use – we have 'PPA' agreements with 180+ renewable generators, some independent, and some from within the £3.4 billion, 2.8GW portfolio of UK green energy producers we operate. And, we back all our energy with Ofgem-certified green energy certificates, which provide generators with an additional source of income. Read more about how we supply 100% renewable energy.
Legal stuff we have to say
- Carbon Neutral energy - On the Octopus Super Green tariff, in addition to the 100% renewable electricity available with our standard plans (fuel mix found here), we also provide 100% carbon-neutral green gas (100% offset - read why we don't use green gas here).The renewable electricity we sell is backed by Ofgem-approved renewable certificates (such as Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificates (REGOs)) and Power Purchase Agreements with UK green energy producers. We offset gas emissions by supporting Renewable World's Gold Standard certified carbon reduction projects.
- Carbon emissions calculations - We have taken an average of our total Super Green tariff users offset emissions from both gas and electricity usage over the year to 22nd July 2021 to illustrate the scale of savings. For users that have been with us over a year, we included their annual usage. If a customer has been with us less than a year their average usage has been multiplied by the number of days they've been with us / 365. The average Octopus tariff saves 574.2kg per year by using 100% renewable electricity vs Super Green tariff of 2777.95kg per year by also offsetting gas. A flight to Hong Kong is 1750kg and a flight to New York is 820kg (source: 'The carbon footprint of everything' - Mike Berners-Lee).
- In the UK, our home energy counts for at least 20% of a person's carbon footprint - This is taken from the government's 2020 greenhouse emissions report (published March 2021). The individual % of carbon footprint will vary from person to person depending on lifestyle but 20% can be taken as an indicative proportion.
- Households emit 14% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK - as stated by the BBC in their investigation into how gas boilers impact the UK's climate change goals (2019).
Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!
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