Are Airtricity a renewable energy company?

TOMP

I moved to Airtricity a number of years ago, as they were promoting wind energy etc, looked at their website today and not a windmill in sight. Are they still a renewable energy company?

dudara

Moved to Electrical

dudara

rob w

http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/about-us/energy-generation/

bassey

They're owned by Scottish Energy who generate alot of their energy by nuclear power. Decide for yourself.

djrichard

Airtricity produce 100% renewable Electricity.

http://www.sse.com/EnergyPolicy/ThePotentialForRenewableEnergyInScotland/

The above link is the parent group, Scottish & Southern Energy. In the north of Scotland the local electric supplier is Hydro Electric. They have a lot of Dams in the mountainous areas off the country for their hydro stations. Lovely scenery up there!

the groutch

djrichard wrote: »

Airtricity produce 100% renewable Electricity.

stop lying, they had to remove that from their ads because multiple complaints were upheld

zinzan

TOMP wrote: »

I moved to Airtricity a number of years ago, as they were promoting wind energy etc, looked at their website today and not a windmill in sight. Are they still a renewable energy company?

Wind turbine...

djrichard

the groutch wrote: »

stop lying, they had to remove that from their ads because multiple complaints were upheld

OK, can you inform us EXACTLY where in this country that Airtricity use any fossil fuels to produce electricity? What are the names of the power plants?

Dont spend too much time scouring the internet wasting your Sunday, you wont find any. I shall tell you why. There are NONE! Airtricity produce 100% renewable electricity. Not 99% or less, thats 100%.

"At the time of broadcast (February 2011), Airtricity was the only energy supplier offering customers the choice of 100% renewable energy for their homes. They said that the SmartSaver Green energy product is the only 100% green energy tariff available to domestic customers in the market. "

http://www.asai.ie/complaint_view.asp?CID=865&BID=41

http://numero57.net/2010/05/05/airtricity-smartsaver-green-plan/


Energy Generation Made Better

"Most of us take electricity for granted, but the traditional ways of generating it are changing. Airtricity is to the forefront of this transformation. By harnessing the power of Ireland’s greatest natural resources, we are able to ensure 100% of the electricity we generate in Ireland is from renewable sources."




http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/about-us/energy-generation/

The reason why some people misunderstand this 100% claim, is due to the fact that when someone is an Airtricity customer, they could be getting a mix of electric from anywhere on the Eirgrid. Airtricity sell 100% renewable electricity to the Eirgrid, then buy electricity at wholesale prices from Eirgrid to sell to their residential customers. Thats why the electric you get isnt going to be 100% renewable, its a mix from all electricity generators. What is important though, is the fact that Airtricity ONLY produce 100% renewable energy.

Im from a small island in Scotland called the Isle Of Tiree (poulation 750+) and we got our first wind turbine a few years ago. Awful looking thing that completely changed the visual look of the island. Now, as some skeptical locals predicted, the success of this project has opened the doors for Scottish Power to try and construct a MASSIVE windfarm 5km west of the island, producing up to 1800MW. There has been a strong backlash as this array will be detrimental to the look of the area, which should be deemed an area of outstanding beauty. It really angers me this is being considered, Im sure the power companies couldnt care less about a few "inbred islanders" who may object, the wheels of "progress" will go on regardless!

http://www.argyllarray.com/

This is a video with a visualisation of what it would look like with the wind farm in place. Im truly disgusted about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNkOEa1cLyk

Anyway, Im going a bit off-topic here........home is where the heart is!

bassey

While Airtricity might produce 100% renewable energy in Ireland it's important to mention that Airtricity customers don't receive 100% renewable energy because Airtricity rarely generate enough energy at any one time to meet their demand so it can be said that their customers still receive fossil fuel generated electricity from ESB and Bord Gais generating plants.

djrichard

bassey wrote: »

While Airtricity might produce 100% renewable energy in Ireland it's important to mention that Airtricity customers don't receive 100% renewable energy because Airtricity rarely generate enough energy at any one time to meet their demand so it can be said that their customers still receive fossil fuel generated electricity from ESB and Bord Gais generating plants.

Which is pretty much what I said. The OP asked the question " Are they still a renewable energy company?" to which the answer is 100% yes. There is no dispute, no room for questioning, no conspiracy. They only generate 100% renewable electricity, therefore they are "still a renewable energy company".

the_syco

I would like to know what percentage of Airtricitys energy comes from wind energy now though. At the start, they could no doubt produce a high percentage of the electricity from wind power, but with more people joining, I wonder how much this percentage has dropped, and how much electricity they now have to get from the fossil fuel stations?

djrichard

the_syco wrote: »

I would like to know what percentage of Airtricitys energy comes from wind energy now though. At the start, they could no doubt produce a high percentage of the electricity from wind power, but with more people joining, I wonder how much this percentage has dropped, and how much electricity they now have to get from the fossil fuel stations?

On the back of my bill, there is a section explaining the fuel mix. Now to be fair, it doesnt actually answer your question properly, as its based on 2009 data and Airtricity have increased the amount of customers massively in this time. I would guess the figures would be substantially lower now. Anyway, based on 2009 data from the Commission for Energy Regulation, 66% of Airtricity's electric comes from renewable resources. In direct comparison to the other two providers in Ireland at the same time, ESB had 12% renewable and Bord Gais had 8%.

I just read that Scottish & Southern are currently building the worlds largest offshore windfarm, which will produce 504MW, that is small in comparison to the Argyll Array! Oh no, save my island

Paparazzo

There were days last year in the ice and snow that Irelands wind generators were at 2% capacity. All they need is to own 1 wind generator to say "our energy is 100% renewable".

djrichard

Paparazzo wrote: »

There were days last year in the ice and snow that Irelands wind generators were at 2% capacity. All they need is to own 1 wind generator to say "our energy is 100% renewable".

and your point is what exactly?

It sounds as if your implying that they only have a wind turbine to lay claim to being 100% renewable.

Have a look here and tell me if its just for marketing purposes.

http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/about-us/our-wind-farms/

the_syco

djrichard wrote: »

Anyway, based on 2009 data from the Commission for Energy Regulation, 66% of Airtricity's electric comes from renewable resources. In direct comparison to the other two providers in Ireland at the same time, ESB had 12% renewable and Bord Gais had 8%.

66% seems a nice large number, but percentages work on the amount of people they are taken from.

66% of a 2727 people is 1800 people, but 12% of 15,000 is 1800, so it really does matter what the figures that the percentages are. Without knowing the customer numbers of both companies, the percentages don't mean much. Esp if Airtricity are getting as many people joining up as we're led to believe.

Paparazzo

djrichard wrote: »

and your point is what exactly?

It sounds as if your implying that they only have a wind turbine to lay claim to being 100% renewable.

Have a look here and tell me if its just for marketing purposes.

http://www.airtricity.com/ie/home/about-us/our-wind-farms/

Of course it is. It's like if ESB sold every power station and kept a few wind farms. All of a sudden they're "100% renewable"

djrichard

Paparazzo wrote: »

Of course it is. It's like if ESB sold every power station and kept a few wind farms. All of a sudden they're "100% renewable"

But they are not doing away with anything. Airtricity are renewable. They dont just generate a small amount of power. They are investing heavily in renewable energy.

Also, despite all the pushing by Airtricity about how green they are etc, in real terms, only the tiniest percentage of people actually make a decision on who supplies their electric based on their green credentials. The vast majority base it on price and quality of service. They are aware of this as much as anyone, so there is no reason for them to have wind turbines as a token gesture to use for marketing purposes. I believe you know that though, sometimes people are just too cynical and like to cause an argument.

Paparazzo

djrichard wrote: »

But they are not doing away with anything. Airtricity are renewable.

I said "if". Although, I notice you don't disagree with the scenario being no different to what Airtricity do now.

djrichard wrote: »

They dont just generate a small amount of power. They are investing heavily in renewable energy.

Also, despite all the pushing by Airtricity about how green they are etc, in real terms, only the tiniest percentage of people actually make a decision on who supplies their electric based on their green credentials. The vast majority base it on price and quality of service. They are aware of this as much as anyone, so there is no reason for them to have wind turbines as a token gesture to use for marketing purposes. I believe you know that though, sometimes people are just too cynical and like to cause an argument.

Earlier you said "Airtricity was the only energy supplier offering customers the choice of 100% renewable energy for their homes"
Nothing cynical in saying that's rubbish. Unless your electricity goes off when there's no wind if you're an Airtricity customer.
What's the customer demand from Airtricity customers? When demand excedes what their windfarms can produce at optimum output, it will really make a joke of their claims.

djrichard

Im pretty much bored of this now. Go and read the link to that comment, I provided it. It explains all there.

They are the greenest.

They generate 100% renewable electric.

They use 0% fossil fuels

They are growing and expanding rapidly.

Thats it, thats all.

Goodnight, God bless

Firewalkwithme

There's a big difference between generating 100% renewable energy and supplying 100% renewable energy to a customer.

Airtricity have attempted in the past, to imply that the energy you receive from them is 100% renewable when it is actually no different in percentage terms to the energy you would receive from any other provider for the simple reason that all of the power generated by any source in Ireland or imported from abroad is distributed on the national grid.

In effect this means that an ESB or Bord Gais customer receives the same proportion of energy generated via renewable resources as an Airtricity customer does.

kirving

'I got rid of ESB and switched to Airtricity cause I'm green. I don't want any of that nasty coal generated electricity anywhere near my house!'

Gotta love that kind of logic!

the_syco

djrichard wrote: »

They generate 100% renewable electric.

This is correct.

djrichard wrote: »

They use 0% fossil fuels

Depends on your definition of "use". Although they don't use fossil fuel to generate electricity, they do use electricity generated by fossil fuels.

number_1

TOMP wrote: »

I moved to Airtricity a number of years ago, as they were promoting wind energy etc, looked at their website today and not a windmill in sight. Are they still a renewable energy company?

Nope, they are no longer a renewable energy company. They are now fully owned by Scottish and Southern Energy. When SSE bought Airtricity a number of years ago, they retained the "Airtricity" brand for their customer supply business in Ireland and for the maintenance of public street lights. The bit of the company which builds, owns and operates renewable energy farms was assimilated into SSE and was rebranded as SSE Renewables - http://www.sserenewables.com/. Today, SSE Renewables is a renewable energy company, while Airtricity is merely an electricity supplier (like Bord Gáis Energy and ESB Electric Ireland), buying electrical energy on the open market and selling directly to consumers. Whether you give your money to any of those companies or not is irrelevant, it'll still be the same electrons oscillating in your house powering your appliances!

ted1

Wind is a joke and is costing us a fortune in subsidies. It also causes more pollution than it saves. This is because wing generation gets prefernce over a fossil plant, and as a result the fosssil plant runs at reduced capacity and therefore it runs st much less effiency. We need to stop this and the subsidiary and let wind energy try to stand on its own feet. To the guy from the island good luck to you cooking your dinner when relying on only wind.

djrichard

ted1 wrote: »

To the guy from the island good luck to you cooking your dinner when relying on only wind.

hahaha of course the island will have the usual supply of electric from the national grid in the UK, distributed to them by Hydro Electricity (Scottish & Southern, who happen to also own Airtricity).

If you had to live on my island, you wouldnt be all that concerned about no wind, its virtually always windy. Thats why they have the World Windsurfing Championship finals there, beaches in every direction and almost guaranteed wind.

ted1

I've actually meet a few kite surfers from there at different comps.

the groutch

djrichard wrote: »

If you had to live on my island

is that the one you bought with all the money you've made as a leccy salesman?

djrichard

the groutch wrote: »

is that the one you bought with all the money you've made as a leccy salesman?

not quite, getting there though!

Its been a bit tough the last week or so, obviously until ESB aanounce their final plans, people are uncertain as to what to do.

I shall have to put my land grabbing plans on hold until things settle! Perhaps I can snap up a little piece of Ireland and I can be heard using that oh so famous line "I told you, its my Ireland!".

Cartoon_Head

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

There's a big difference between generating 100% renewable energy and supplying 100% renewable energy to a customer.

Airtricity have attempted in the past, to imply that the energy you receive from them is 100% renewable when it is actually no different in percentage terms to the energy you would receive from any other provider for the simple reason that all of the power generated by any source in Ireland or imported from abroad is distributed on the national grid.

In effect this means that an ESB or Bord Gais customer receives the same proportion of energy generated via renewable resources as an Airtricity customer does.

Correct. The electricity you receive into your home is exactly the same regardless of which provider you're with. The only difference is that the meter reading is passed to Airtricity for billing rather than the ESB; I believe ESB Networks still do the meter readings.

For the consumer it's fake competition really as the only difference is in billing.

number_1

ted1 wrote: »

Wind is a joke and is costing us a fortune in subsidies.

No it's not.

http://www.eirgrid.com/media/ImpactofWind.pdf

Fabo

SSE Airtricity own Tarbert heavy fuel oil plant, Great Island heavy fuel oil plant (soon to be gas), Rhode Distillate oil plant, Tawnaghmore oil plant and about 16 wind farms.

So yes, very green !

They have all the market covered from dirty fossil fuel to wind.