The most impactful and cost-effective way to power your home with renewable energy is with solar on your roof. With rooftop solar, you're directly increasing the amount of solar energy generated. And you can power your home with solar for free while the sun is shining.

You can also support renewable energy through the electricity you choose to buy – even if you can’t get solar on your roof. 

Choosing an energy company that supports renewables

You can choose a power company that’s committed to increasing their renewable energy supply.

Electricity retailers may own electricity generation assets, or have contracts to buy electricity from generators – and these could be fossil fuel plants or renewable energy.

The Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace provides information to help you compare the environmental performance of electricity retailers according to their overall carbon emissions, reliance on coal and climate impact.

GreenPower

GreenPower is a national government program that enables households and businesses to choose renewable energy through their electricity plan.

When you choose GreenPower, your electricity retailer buys an equivalent amount of electricity from accredited renewable sources, such as large scale wind and solar.

Most electricity retailers offer GreenPower, at an additional cost. This is because your electricity provider pays the wholesale electricity price for the renewable electricity and a certified GreenPower premium.

By purchasing 100% GreenPower, you can cover all of your household's emissions from electricity.

If you can install solar on your roof, you can use renewable energy for free while the sun is shining, and you may receive a credit on your energy bill for excess solar you send to the grid. 

Improving your home's energy efficiency is another way to reduce the amount of fossil fuels powering your home. If you have limited budget you may want to instead consider investing in draughtproofing to keep your home from leaking heat and cold, while also reducing your energy use. 

Video: Why choose GreenPower?

Video: How to buy GreenPower in 10 minutes

Webinar: Renewable energy and GreenPower
 

How to switch

To switch to renewable electricity, you can start by asking your current electricity retailer whether they offer 100% GreenPower and how much it costs (cents per kilowatt hour).

Below are comparison sites that state that they compare all publicly available offers on the market.

• The GreenPower site enables you to find an energy company that supplies 100% accredited GreenPower. Contact the energy company directly to ask for their best GreenPower rate.
• The Victorian Government's Victorian Energy Compare is an online tool to help you compare electricity and gas offers from all energy retailers. Select the option to show GreenPower offers and then focus on those that are 100% GreenPower.
• There a range of comparison sites that list publicly available energy plans from retailers. For example, WATTever allows you to filter offers and find plans which offer 100% GreenPower.
• The Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace ranks energy retailers according to their overall carbon emissions, reliance on coal, and climate impact.

Choosing an energy company

Your choice of electricity company has an impact on the demand for renewable energy.

Electricity retailers may own electricity generation assets, or have contracts to buy electricity from generators – and these could be fossil fuel plants or renewable energy.

You can choose a power company that’s committed to increasing their renewable energy supply.

The Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace provides information to help you compare the environmental performance of electricity retailers according to their overall carbon emissions, reliance on coal and climate impact.

Carbon offsets

Some electricity retailers offer 'carbon neutral' or 'carbon offset' electricity.

This means your power company buys carbon offsets to offset the emissions from your grid-supplied electricity, which typically comes from coal and gas.

Carbon offsets are purchased from certified sustainability projects that reduce carbon emissions including tree planting, land management, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Although they are more costly, offsets backed by an independent standard such as the Gold Standard must meet certain criteria to ensure they deliver the intended impact.

More information

Watch our webinar featuring an expert speaker from Renew explain the ins and out of buying renewable energy, GreenPower, carbon offset energy and household energy efficiency.

Download the webinar slide pack [ PDF, 5.02 MB]

Find out more about how Council has switched to 100% renewable energy and reduced its energy usage.