There has been a lot of talk about green energy tariffs lately and how (for a small increase to your monthly bill) you can help the planet by going low or zero carbon in your home. Now many people dismiss these as gimmicks or come out with the same old tired line that it's up to the government to produce clean energy and why should we pay more for it?
Well here's a newsflash - clean energy is growing fast and getting a great deal of investment from many sectors including the government but if we really want to help the planet we have to do our bit too. So I thought what better way to encourage this than to do a rundown of the top green energy tariffs offered in the UK.

British Gas

Zero Carbon gives you a genuine zero carbon footprint for your home at least for an average increase of £7.50 on your monthly bill (assuming you are a dual fuel customer). The endless calls trying to get a word of sense out of British Gas' customer support team however will cause an average increase of £10.42 on your monthly phone bill.
Future Energy is basically giving British Gas an extra £3 a month (on average) that they promise to invest in renewable energies which they will then supply back to the national grid.

E.On

E.On are focusing on an overall 'green attitude' with great investment in offshore wind farms and an extensive portfolio outlining their future plans for green energy production.
They have one business and one domestic 100% green tariff - EasyGreen and Go Green respectively. Both match every unit you use with a unit from a renewable source.

Scottish Power

Green Energy Fund is quite simple - as they say on the site "Each year, no matter how much or how little energy you use, a fixed amount of £10.50 (inc. VAT) is automatically donated to the Green Energy Trust on your behalf". So it's exactly the same as you setting up an 88p a month direct debit to trust yourself. Well as they say - something is better than nothing!
Green Energy H..2..O is a plan that matches every unit you use with one generated at one of Scottish Power's own hydro-electric plants. To encourage you on to this plan they also offer you an (average) discount of £16.80 a year if you use them for dual fuel (of course some fairly substantial Terms and Conditions apply). This is the first tariff I've seen where it could actually be cheaper to go green.
 

NPower

Juice is a tariff that matches your energy consumption unit for unit (although based on an estimate of your usage) with energy from renewable sources. They also claim it will cost you nothing extra on top of your monthly bills and there is even an £80 discount if you switch to it for gas and electricity (£20 discount if you just switch one). I'm very impressed by this.
 

Green Energy UK

Green Energy UK only have two tariffs - Deep Green and Pale Green. Deep Green being 100% renewable energy and Pale Green being a combination of renewable and 'low impact' combined heat and power generators. They don't give any indication of their pricing relative to other providers but have great eco-credentials.
 

Good Energy

Good Energy claim to be the UK's only 100% renewable energy provider. they don't have different tariffs but claim their weekly premium is "equivalent to 2 pints of beer or an average bottle of plonk" - so about a fiver a week then?
 

Ecotricity

New Energy uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines topped up with normal power from the National Grid. Currently the percentage of their own wind power is 30% and rising by 10% a year.
New Energy Plus uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines as above topped up with renewable energy from other sources making it a 100% renewable tariff. They claim the premium to be in the region of £20 a year for the average household.
 

The Verdict

Well it's hard to tell what the catches are for any of these plans without signing up yourself but certainly on paper I'd say that Scottish Power's Green Energy H..2..O and NPower's Juice are looking like the best bet. I very much admire these new smaller energy providers with fantastic green credentials but economies of scale mean often that the bigger companies are generally able to provide the same level service for a better price.