If you’ve turned on the news recently (or even if you haven’t) you’ll have seen some updates that really put the pressure on humanity to make less of an impact on the planet. Renewable electricity is an amazing way to do that, because…well we’ve made a list of reasons why.

Check them out:

Renewable electricity = No CO2

Let’s get the biggie out of the way. CO2 (carbon dioxide) is the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. We hear about it a lot. Businesses promising to be carbon neutral, or even carbon negative. People talking about your carbon footprint. The earth can’t absorb enough CO2 to balance out the carbon humans are putting out. So any way to reduce CO2 is a great thing, right? Right.

According to our amazing renewable electricity supplier, Octopus Energy, an average UK home using traditional electricity will put out 574kg of CO2 in a year. The same household using renewable electricity puts out 0. That’s the same as planting 287 trees! Or planting 5.5 trees a week. All by watching telly and switching your lights on. Result. 

You’re part of a green revolution

When you sign up to a green tariff, you don’t get hooked up to a special green grid that only sends you renewable energy. It’s better than that, actually. As a renewable customer, you’re actually financing the greenification of the UK’s grid overall with your monthly payments.

The more renewable energy users they have, the more energy renewable suppliers can add into the UK grid, meaning that everybody gets more green as a result. You’re not just doing a good thing for you, you’re investing in a greener future for everybody.

You’re improving our health

We talk a lot about making the planet healthier, which makes sense. We live here, after all. However, using fossil fuels to generate electricity is also bad for our health individually. 

Fossil fuels are burned to generate electricity, which produces a lot of air pollution. This is a problem that the British Lung Foundation estimates causes 36,000 early deaths in the UK each year. Air pollution comes from all sorts of places , including cars, factories, smoking, farming, and of course the emissions from generating our energy.

The more people that sign up to renewables, the healthier we’ll all be.

It’ll last forever. The clue’s in the name.

Renewable does what it says on the tin. As long as there’s wind, and sun and running water, there’ll be renewable energy to light our light bulbs and microwave our lunches. Coal and other fossil fuels are another story. There’s a finite amount, they’re bad for the environment to burn, and digging them up isn’t super great either, often causing water and air pollution to the local habitat.

It generates jobs

This seems like a weird one, but renewable energy technology needs a lot of maintenance, unlike the ultra-mechanised fossil fuels industry. This creates jobs across the country for skilled technicians to keep renewable energy sources going. So not only are you doing good for our planet and our health, you’re doing good for lots of people’s careers too!