It's been a funny old year for Australian energy customers. Particularly those looking for greener providers. We've seen the former sustainability leader Powershop being bought by fossil fuel giant Shell and Enova Community Energy going into administration.
So who are Australia's green energy retailers in 2022?
In this article we use our analysis from the 2022 Finder Green Awards to attempt to answer that question for you. So let's get straight to it
In 2022, our finalists in this category are:
Green Energy Retailer of the Year (Overall): Enova Community Energy
Traditional Energy Retailer of the Year (Traditional): Powershop
Green Energy Company of the Year (Retail-only): Energy Locals
You can find a full list of winners and finalists for the Finder Green Awards here.
It was another competitive year for the energy category and this year we have a new winner in Enova Community Energy who scored well across the board. Enova Community Energy did all the important things well like sourcing renewable energy, offering carbon neutral plans and encouraging customers to sign-up to the Government's GreenPower program.
Where Enova really stood out though was for its social enterprise business structure that ensured 50% of profits went into the organisation's foundation. In turn, the foundation then funded community renewable energy projects, energy efficiency, and energy education services. A powerful formula for green energy goodness.
You may have noticed a lot of the prior section was written in the past tense and that's for a good reason. Shortly after we announced Enova Community Energy as our Green Energy
Retailer of the Year the business went into voluntary administration citing the cost of energy as the primary reason for this decision. Enova was not able to secure fixed pricing from 1 July 2022 meaning the business became exposed to the high wholesale energy prices on that date and decided the best option for its customers was to cease operations. This means that all current Enova customers are being switched to new providers and the retailer is not accepting new customers.
There are still a few options out there for Australian customers looking for an energy retailer taking climate action seriously. In this section we use the analysis from our Finder Green Awards to help you assess your options.
Energy Locals was a winner in our Finder Green Awards in both 2021 and 2022 but it was pipped at the post this year by Enova Community Energy. It's fair to say that with Enova Community Energy out of the equation, Energy Locals would have won this year as well. It scored well in our analysis for sourcing a high proportion of renewable energy and for offering carbon neutral energy as standard. It has some of the cheapest GreenPower pricing on the market and has a number of projects in place to support clean energy technologies. If you're looking for an environmentally-friendly alternative to Enova Community Energy then Energy Locals is probably your best bet.
Those that have followed along closely will know that Powershop was also a winner in our prior Finder Green Awards. The big news for Powershop this year is that it was acquired by fossil-fuel giant Shell in a deal that finalised in February 2022. This has led to a lot of unhappy customers leaving Powershop for fears that they could be contributing to the profits of one of the planet's biggest polluters. That being said, based on our analysis from the Finder Green Awards at the start of the year, Powershop itself is still being run with climate action as a top priority. All power is sourced from 100% renewable energy, all plans are carbon neutral and it offers the cheapest GreenPower pricing that we saw. It also still has some of Australia's leading clean energy initiatives including a plan that lets electric vehicle owners charge their car on the cheap at night. If you're comfortable with Powershop's association with Shell then they do still have strong green credentials across the board and great options for EV owners.
Our last finalist was Momentum Energy which is another good option for those looking for a green energy retailer. Momentum is owned by Hydro Tasmania which is Australia's largest renewable energy generator so, unsurprisingly, it scored well for renewable energy usage and emissions intensity of its generation assets. It was slightly more expensive than the other finalists for GreenPower though and does not offer carbon neutral plans as standard. It also tended to score lower on the work it's doing on clean energy promotion with its submission providing limited details in these areas. All of that being said, Momentum is still a greener option than most energy retailers and may be of particular interest to those of you looking to support Hydro Tasmania.
For more information on the Finder Green Awards and for a full list of winners you can visit our Finder Green Awards hub page here.
Green energy is often used interchangeably with the phrase renewable energy.
GreenPower, however:
Carbon neutrality can be a confusing concept. At a basic level it means the environmental impact of an activity or company is offset with carbon credits.
Carbon credits are where things get confusing. They are:
The Green Electricity Guide is a joint initiative of Greenpeace and the Total Environment Centre built to assess the "greenness" of Australian energy retailers. It ranks energy companies across a wide range of factors, many of which are the same criteria as our own Finder Green Award. This includes renewable generation, fossil fuel policy, emissions and energy management schemes.
The Green Electricity Guide also ranked Enova Community Energy as its top retailer before it went into administration and now lists Diamond Energy as its front runner. Energy Locals and Momentum Energy also made the top three.
We've unpacked the energy jargon used above so you can better understand how green power works.
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