Food and farming charity signs up to ‘hourly matching’ service

A Bristol-based environmental charity has signed up to a new way of sourcing its energy to demonstrate its commitment to a more sustainable future.

The Soil Association is one of the first Good Energy business customers to use ‘hourly matching’, providing unprecedented levels of detail on how its power is matched on an hourly basis with renewable sources such as solar farms.

The information helps businesses to understand how their power is generated and simplifies carbon reporting by providing game-changing levels of transparency – transforming the fight against ‘greenwashing’.

Some of the electricity matched to the Soil Association is being generated by solar panels at packaging company Leeways Services near Gloucester. Around a quarter of the excess solar power they generate gets exported back to the grid for other users.

Good Energy customers use an online platform, provided in partnership with Granular Energy, to see which generators are supplying their renewable electricity, with daily, weekly and monthly trends showing when their matching is highest.

This allows business to slash their carbon emissions by shifting their usage to times of higher renewable power generation. The platform also shows when more power is being used than expected, avoiding inefficiencies and saving money.

Spokesperson for The Soil Association Pete Williams says:

“We’re always trying to connect people with the source of their food and where their products are coming from, in the same way Good Energy are showing us exactly who’s helping to produce our energy. Many people say they feel powerless in the face of climate change but we all make choices, not matter how small, that can have a benefit. And when you look across business, communities and individuals, choosing renewable energy adds up to a massive difference.”

Leeways Packaging Services, which produces recyclable trays for the food industry, has more than 1,700 solar panels on land next to its Churcham headquarters along with an even larger solar facility at its other manufacturing site in Cinderford.