Good Energy & Comparing Business Energy Alternatives
Good Energy, also known as Good Energy Group PLC, is based in Chippenham, Wiltshire, Britain. It primarily provides services in transports electrification and decentralised renewable energy generation. This includes things like domestic solar panels. As well as this, Good Energy operates as an energy retailer. Their portfolio of solar and wind generation was wholly sold off in 2022. If you would like to read more information or learn more about the pricing of business energy, you can do so here .
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Who is Good Energy?
Good Energy, also known as Good Energy Group PLC, is based in Chippenham, Wiltshire, Britain. It primarily provides services in transports electrification and decentralised renewable energy generation. This includes things like domestic solar panels. As well as this, Good Energy operates as an energy retailer. Their portfolio of solar and wind generation was wholly sold off in 2022.
The company was not always known as Good Energy and was initially named Ofex when it was set up in 1997. It was initially of Unit Energy Europe, a German power company. However, in 2003 the company was bought by its management, and this is what the organisation changed its name to Good Energy.
Good Energy as A Key Player in the Market
Good Energy now considers itself a key player in the move away from practices that damage the environment in the UK. More specifically, it has advocated a transition away from fossil fuels to a network of small, independent generators that supply local customers since 2010. It focuses on getting much of its power and energy supply from small and medium-sized, distributed renewable electricity generators across the UK. It uses about 800 and the moment.
On top of this, the company invests in developing its generation sources. It initially had a goal of supplying around half of the demands of its customers from resources it had built up and generated itself by 2016. However, this ambition continues to be under review. This push to operate in a particular manner received a boost when it was listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2012 and managed to raise an impressive £4 million of additional investment.
Good Energy in the News
Good Energy made headlines in 2014 when they announced a trial for ‘Piclo’, the UK’s first renewable energy marketplace. The initiative was planned with Open Utility, a UK energy start-up. The idea was that consumers and generators would sell and buy renewable Energy directly at prices agreed on between the two parties.
This was part of Good Energy’s push to move the UK away from fossil fuels and greener energy sources. The trial began in October 2015 and lasted for six months. It was supported by the British energy industry regulatory organisation, Ofgem. It also received most of its funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Energy Entrepreneurs Fund and Nominet Trust.
History of Good Energy
The company had grown to a respectable size by 2016. In June of that year, it supplied over 72,000 customers with electricity and 43,000 with gas. It was also one of the largest feed-in tariff administrators in the United Kingdom because of the 124,500 plus feed-in tariff generation sites it administered in the same year.
The company was forced into a change of approach when it announced reduced profits in 2017. As a path change, Good Energy announced that they were actively seeking buyers for their remaining wind and solar sites. Instead, they would focus primarily on providing decentralised energy services, including things like electric vehicle charging and battery storage.
As of June 2020, Good Energy holds a stake in Next Green Car Ltd, which are very much in line with their approach to Energy. The Bristol-based private company that operates Zap-Map, an electric vehicle charging point mapping platform, first had a minority holding bought in it by Good Energy in 2019. Still, as of June 2020, the energy company now owns 50.1%.
Good Energy owned eight solar farms and two winds farms (at Delabole, North Cornwall, and Hampole, South Yorkshire) as of June 2017. The wind farm at Delabole is particularly noteworthy as it was the first commercial wind farm in the UK. For some analysts, getting the private sector more heavily involved with the innovation and maintenance required to get renewable energy sources to a level that will make beating climate change a possibility is essential and must happen as quickly as possible. Others argue that the private sector is unreliable and will always be putting profits first regardless of what goal it has been tasked with the undertaking.
Either way, Delabole marked a significant milestone as the first commercial wind farm. In 2008, Good Energy was granted planning approval to repower the wind farm. However, they didn’t do this straight from their own pockets, and the task was funded by an £11.8 million finance package that was primarily made up of a £9.6 million loan from the Co-operative Bank. Good Energy provided just £2.2 million of equity from their resources. When the wind farm was reopened in February 2011, four more powerful turbines had replaced the original ten weaker turbines. As part of this reopening, Good Energy launched a tariff in which local people who lived near the wind farm would get 20% off from their energy bills. This community tariff aligned with Good Energy’s stated aims and ethos.
This way of operating wasn’t to last forever, though. In December 2017, the company announced that two solar sites would be returned to community ownership. The company was also hit by the 2021 natural gas supplier crisis that shook the UK and much of Europe.
In response to the financial turmoil that the event put the company through, Good Energy announced that it would sell its 47.5 MW generation portfolio in its entirety. This was estimated to have a netbook value of around £56.8 million. This was responsible for providing around 15% of its customers’ electricity. This sell-off was primarily completed in January 2022 when Good Energy sold its portfolio to Bluefield Solar’s income fund for £25.5 million.
This move was met with some criticism from within the industry. The owner of Ecotricity, Dale Vince, claimed that the sale of Good Energy’s generation assets was a break up of the business. Ecotricity had recently tried to buy Good Energy essentially. Still, the cash offer, which implied a value of almost £60 million for the entire company, was ultimately rejected after less than 50% of Good Energy’s shareholders accepted the offer.
Good Energy – To Conclude
Even if the company has been forced to downsize by events during the last decade, it still looks set to hold on for a while yet.
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