100% Renewable Energy Supplier (UK)

Needles to say, choosing your electricity supplier is one of the most important environmental decisions you make. Energy companies that supply electric power to homes and businesses around the country can use very different sources of energy - from coal, gas, or nuclear, to 100% renewable sources such as wind, solar, or hydro-electric. And not only that; different companies in the UK have considerably different portfolios of such sources: for example, the main energy source of EDF Energy is nuclear power, for E.ON it is gas, and for Scottish Power it is coal (data from 2012. Check it here).

Energy companies also vary greatly in terms of how much of their energy comes from 100% renewable sources. Very few of the big energy companies in the UK have more than 10% of their energy sources in renewable ones. There are really only two notable exceptions: the companies Ecotricity and Good Energy. Ecotricity combines renewable sources with gas and coal, but no less than 64% of their energy sources are in renewables, i.e. wind and solar especially.

But, so far the ONLY electricity supplier in the UK that provides 100% renewable sourced electricity is Good Energy. Mostly, the energy it supplies comes from small or medium-sized renewable power generators, distributed across the UK, such as solar panels or smaller 'solar farms', and wind farms. They are spearheading the "home grown energy movement", encouraging ordinary people and households around the country to become small energy producers for themselves, and small suppliers via Good Energy by selling the surplus of energy they create. Good Energy are also very much 'locally-minded', meaning they tend to work closely with local communities where their wind or solar farms exist (or are planned), and offer them discounts on energy prices. And they seem to be experiencing an exciting development on several localities in Britain at the moment (on shore), but mostly concentrated in Cornwall (see also here).

I wanted to choose Good Energy a few years ago, but I eventually gave up due to some issues with my landlord. As we'll be moving house soon, I am now actively thinking about switching to Good Energy (check some very useful comparison of the UK energy companies at Uswitch.com). They may be a bit more expensive than your average energy supplier, but I have no doubt in my mind that 100% renewable energy is the way to go. Any thoughts you may have on this are welcome in the comments.