Fuel mix - renewable energy and low-carbon electricity from LoCO2 Energy

Understanding where your electricity comes from is an important part of the decision-making process when your switch your home to renewable energy.

Our renewable energy tariffs and prices are outlined elsewhere. We promise to try to source energy from certain technologies but, every year, the proportions will change as we bring on new generators or if certain technologies do better or worse than predicted. Wet winters, for example, will lead to good annual hydro generation, even in the summer, whilst a largely cloudless summer will see good solar PV production.

The different tariffs that we have are sourced from different technologies. The individual fuel mixes for each tariff in 2010/2011 are as follows.

We promised that our Planet tariff would be 100% renewable and sourced exclusively from wind, solar and hydro power.

Our own hydropower stations at Greenholme Mill and Aberdulais, as well as the strong connections we have throughout the hydropower industry, allowed us to secure a strong foundation of hydroelectricity. This was topped up with a respectable quantity of wind power.

We tried our best to get some solar energy but we didn't manage it this year. However, we have already signed some contracts with some solar generators in 2011 so next year will see some solar input into our fuel mix.

100% renewable energy tariff - Pocket+

Our Pocket+ tariff will always be 100% renewable. We manage to keep the costs for this tariff a little lower by sourcing from a wide range of renewable technologies. This could be everything from the 'big three' (wind, solar and hydro) through to the less glamorous but still green anaerobic digestion and landfill gas sites.

In 2010/2011 we managed to get a large chunk of landfill gas. This was supplemented with our own hydropower generation and private hydro contracts.

Next year, we aim to add some wind and solar into the mix and we already have some anaerobic digestion contracts agreed.

The Pocket tariff is our low-carbon energy offering. The price is kept very competitive by the large element of natural gas and CHP, technologies which are both less carbon intensive and more efficient than coal.

This year, the green element was made up of landfill gas. Next year we'll try to diversify this with some additional green generation.

Our fixed-rate tariff, Pocket Fixed, has the exact same fuel mix.

Heatwise is our tariff for those with renewable heat installations such as ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps and biomass boilers.

Like Planet, we wanted to source this electricity completely from wind, solar and hydro projects. In 2010/2011 we mostly used hydro generation, topped up with a little green.

And finally we have the UK's total fuel mix in 2010/2011. Too much coal, too much nuclear and not nearly enough renewables.

Our total company fuel mix for 2010/2011 is on the right. Many of our customers opt for our Pocket tariff, so we have a high proportion of natural gas.

Whilst this is still a low-carbon alternative to coal, we would rather show you a greener pie. So we need your help and you can do your bit by opting for our 100% renewable energy tariffs, Planet and Pocket+.