ScottishPower offers green power tariff entirely supplied by own wind farms

ScottishPower has launched a new household energy tariff through which it is promising 100 per cent renewable power directly supplied from its own UK wind farms, in a move it said was aimed at combatting "greenwashing" across the wider energy market.

The green energy giant - which became the first of the 'Big Six' suppliers to quit fossil fuels after selling its gas business to Drax for £702m in 2018 - said that from today all new Scottish Power domestic fixed-price tariffs would be supplied with electricity solely generated by its wind farms, in order to guarantee tariff proceeds are directed towards new green electricity projects.

ScottishPower said it would reinvest money made from the new tariffs in new renewable generation "meaning the more people who take up the tariff, the more investment in green energy there will be", rather than through purchasing certificates "to green-up non-renewable electricity".

The company views the move to both generate and sell renewable electricity - rather than relying on certificates - as a growing trend across the sector, as consumers awareness over environmental impact of the goods and services they purchase intensifies.

Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower, said the company's end-to-end involvement in the electricity sector - including generation, transmission and sale of power - put it in a "unique" position to be able to offer tariffs guaranteeing 100 per cent green power from its own assets.

"From today, anyone who signs up for our electricity on a fixed-price tariff can be confident that they are buying 100 per cent green electricity - all of it is sourced from our windfarms," he said. "More than that, they will be contributing to building the next generation of renewable energy, because money made from these tariffs will go into developing new wind farms and other green generation projects."

Many energy suppliers in the UK now offer 100 per cent green electricity deals, but some of these tariffs rely on the purchase of renewable energy certificates to prove origin of the electricity, rather than by directly supporting the development of new renewable energy assets and infrastructure.

For example Shell Energy - rebranded from First Utility after the oil giant's acquisition of the firm last year - offers 100 per cent renewable energy tariffs as standard to its customers by purchasing Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs), but it does not directly us proceeds to invest in new green energy generation.

Anderson slammed the use of renewable energy certificates as "greenwashing", and claimed ScottishPower's new tariffs would directly help boost the UK's clean energy capacity, with the company investing £7m every working day to deliver renewable electricity.

In 2019 the firm also unveiled a sweeping new investment plan, promising to spend £2bn last year in developing clean tech and renewable energy projects ranging from wind farms to electric vehicle charging and energy storage projects.

"With an increasing number of green tariffs in the market, it's important that consumers understand how 'green' their tariff is in terms of supporting the UK renewables industry," he explained. "This isn't about playing games with bits of paper or certificates. This is the real deal - customers buying energy from renewable sources and helping us to build even more.

"As well as cleaning up the environment, we want to clean up how green energy is sold," he added. "My concern is that too many customers think they're buying renewable electricity, when all they're buying is a renewable certificate. Today, we're calling time on this so-called 'greenwashing'."

ScottishPower now generates power solely from onshore and offshore wind, and last year announced plans to add a 50MW battery to its Whitelee onshore wind farm, which it said would be "the first of a series of storage schemes". The firm also has plans for several major offshore wind farms around the UK coast in the pipeline.