Renewable Energy for Business

The Climate Change Levy was introduced in April 2001 with the objective of reducing carbon emissions by taxing the end users that create them.  The Levy will lead to an increase in most businesses electricity bills.

Renewable energy, however, is exempt from the levy and businesses who sign up to a green tariff can avoid paying it, with a possible saving of up to 15% for most businesses.

This form of power is likely to be cheaper than tariff prices and in many circumstances cheaper than competitively purchased alternatives

Renewable energy can be supplied to businesses through the national grid.  

You can now buy your electricity from any supplier, and many of them now offer either 'green tariffs' or 'green funds'.  A green tariff will match your electricity use with energy from renewable sources.  A green fund uses some of the money from your bill to support renewable energy installations or research, or other environmental projects.

Changing your supplier won't make any difference to the way your electricity comes to you through the grid, or the way you are billed.

Switching to a green tariff helps to promote the development of renewable energy, but you should still try to minimise your electricity consumption as much as possible.

Every means of generating electricity has some environmental impact, including the energy and materials that go into manufacture and installation.  Reducing your overall energy demand, means that less large-scale generating capacity and grid infrastructure will be needed.