Monthly Archives: August 2017

UK households have forked out an extra £7.3 billion over the last five years by remaining customers of the Big Six energy firms, a new report shows.

Ofgem data compiled by energy provider Bulb found that families who held accounts with the biggest firms – including British Gas, SSE, E.ON, Npower, EDF and Scottish Power – for at least five years paid out an average £853 more than they needed to over the period

The report explained that while Big Six firms tend to offer cheaper fixed tariffs in order to “entice” new customers, those tariffs tend to expire within one to two years.

At that point customers are usually transferred to standard variable tariffs, which cost up to 30% more than their original plan.

The report went on to calculate the so-called “loyalty fee”, which measures the annual price difference between the average standard variable tariff at a Big Six firm compared to their cheapest tariff.

It found that the average loyalty fee for a UK household was £852.75 over five years – with an astonishing 8.5million British homes staying with one of the Big Six firms and not switching.

Bulb co-founder Hayden Wood said: “Loyalty towards a brand is often rewarded, yet households who’ve put their trust for years in a single energy company are being forced to subsidise others who switch every 12 months.”

He added: “These latest numbers show that so-called standard tariffs no longer have the customers’ best interests at heart. The Big Six need to show that they’re putting customers first, instead of profits.”

A recent poll by uSwitch found a third of Brits are already concerned about paying their energy bills this winter and more than half are struggling with their household finances.

British Gas became the latest Big Six energy supplier to hike prices at the start of August, when it confirmed that it was ramping up the cost of electricity by 12.5% for 3.1 million customers, despite falling wholesale prices.

The company had promised in December that it would freeze tariffs until summer 2017, while rivals including Scottish Power, E.ON and EDF raised their own bills near the start of the year.

Competitor SSE raised dual fuel prices by 6.9% in April, while Npower came under fire in February amid plans to hike gas and electricity prices by 9.8% – a move that added £109 to annual dual fuel bills.

Solar panel capacity is set to overtake nuclear worldwide for the first time within the next few months, according to expert predictions.

The total capacity of nuclear power is currently about 391.5 gigawatts but the total capacity of photovoltaic cells is expected to hit 390 gigawatts by the end of this year with demand growing at up to eight per cent per year, according to GTM Research.

While this would be a landmark moment for renewable energy, nuclear still generates much more electricity than solar – nearly 2.5 million gigawatt-hours a year compared to the latter’s 375,000 gigawatt-hours

Stephen Lacey, writing on GTM’s website, said: “It’s still going to be a record-breaking year for new solar capacity additions – yet again.

“The 81 gigawatts expected this year are more than double the amount of solar capacity installed in 2014. And it’s 32 times more solar deployed a decade ago. (In the year 2000, global installations totaled 150 megawatts.)

“One of the most telling statistics: By 2022, global capacity will likely reach 871 gigawatts. That’s about 43 gigawatts more than expected cumulative wind installs by that date. And it’s more than double today’s nuclear capacity.”

While solar accounts for about 1.8 per cent of global electricity generation today, the International Energy Agency has predicted this could rise to 16 per cent by 2050 under a “high-growth scenario”, which would make it the largest source of energy in the world.

And Mr Lacy said: “In the last three years, growth rates and cost reductions for solar have far exceeded projections. Meanwhile, high costs, slow construction and competitive renewable alternatives are causing the global nuclear industry to falter.

“The trend lines are becoming clearer every year.”

The Sun delivers enough energy to the Earth in an hour to provide humans with everything they need for an entire year