Spain leads the way on renewables

Spain will become one of the first countries to be powered 100 per cent by renewable energy - with 29 million of its homes currently being run on wind power alone.

Miguel Ezpeleta, director of one of Spain's top energy companies, predicted the country will become 100 reliable on renewable energy in the future. He spoke with Australian news, claiming that “The important thing is to predict and forecast what is going to happen. I think people are going to tell me we're crazy but I'm pretty sure we'll arrive at 100 per cent for one moment for sure.”

Located in Pamplona, the firm currently monitors 9,500 wind turbines across the world. Last November saw a new nighttime record where wind energy provided 70 per cent of the country's energy supply. Prior to that the daytime record was set in January 2015, during this time 54 per cent of the energy used in Spain was produced by wind power alone.

Spain currently sits over three quarters of the way towards it's renewable energy targets as assigned by the European Union. The target for spain is 20 per cent of energy to come from renewables by 2020, with their current level and 17.4 per cent.

As with any story on energy news, specifically renewables, critics have been quick to point out the flaws. Focussing on renewables has, thus far, not made any impact on the affordability of energy. Some have suggested that there has been a 60 per cent price increase over the past 10 years.

Consumers can still save money if they are savvy with their energy useage, and making sure that they are always on the most competitive tariff.

Saving on energy doesn't just come from making sure your lights are turned off, you may be paying over the odds just for remaining loyal to your supplier. Recent studies have shown that in some cases the best deals are only available to new customers - meaning there is no benefit or discount for remaining loyal to a brand.

Make sure that you are always paying the best prices on the market for your energy by comparing the market with energyadviceline.org.uk. The free and impartial comparison service also offers a free energy advice line to business consumers.

CMA to post industry investigation

It's fair to say that publishing any kind of report on the day of the EU referendum means it will promptly be overlooked in favour of other news.

The Competitions and Market Authority will be releasing their industry findings later this week, however a lot has changed since it's launch two years ago. Massive price hikes from the Big Six have been taken on by the independent suppliers and the big suppliers are losing their hold over the market, but we're not safe from price hikes yet.

There will be four key pillars to the report on Thursday and speculation is well under way as to what the outcome will be.

Scale - CMA agrees that households are paying too much, and suppliers are still standing by their claims that the figures are 'nonsense'.

Price caps - one proposal is for customers with pre payment meters to receive a price cap, as these consumers are the most likely to be excluded from the best deals on the market.

Spam - a new database has been created from the details of customers who have not switched for three or more years, highlighting the importance and ease of switching. Needless to say, suppliers aren't keen on giving away their customer's data so suppliers can undercut them.

Tariff restrictions - this will enable suppliers to offer exclusive deals to new customers, while excluding existing customers from receiving the benefits.

Time will tell what is to become of the CMA report, in the meantime our advice remains the same - searching the market for the best deals will always be the way to ensure you're getting the best price on your energy spend. The service with energyadviceline.org.uk is always free and impartial, taking the hassle out of switching and saving.

Europe powers on with renewable energy

May has been a great month for renewable energies - both Germany and Portugal successfully powered their electricity supplies using purely renewable technologies. Data revealed from an analysis by national energy network figures showed the Portugal's electricity was powered by solar, wind and hydro for a total of 107consecutive hours.

Beginning in the morning of the 7 May, the country was powered by renewables until the following Wednesday evening. This follows news that Germany announced their own clean energy day on Sunday 15 May - where their power prices went into negative figures several times throughout the day, effectively paying their consumers to use the energy.

The support for Portugal's wind energy fell in 2012, but despite this drawback the country has added 550MW of wind capacity over the past three years. During 2015 Denmark's electricity demand was fulfilled by 42% wind power - 20% in Spain, 13% in Germany, and 11% in the UK.

Clean energy supporters marked this as a breakthrough and a 'historic turning point', especially since the UK enjoyed it's first ever coal-free electricity generation. Looking to the renewable energy targets from the EU, we will no doubt see more of these stories over the next four years.

Julian Morgan, managing director of the leading price comparison and switching service said, "As electricity becomes cheaper to produce, we hope that consumers will be able to enjoy savings passed on by their suppliers.

"Our message to consumers, is that this will be a long time coming for energy customers. In the meantime, always be sure that you are paying the most competitive prices by regularly comparing the market and finding out the best deals for you."

Find out more information at energyadviceline.org.uk

What Happened at the Weekend

This weekend the news focused largely around the oil prices, and the beginning of work on EU energy integration. This will help to unify the different energy sectors to better insulate countries from dependence on Russia for natural gas.

Saturday 7th February

• Ministers Plot New Energy Switching Drive
• Church of England may sell £3m stake in mining firm over fears for gorilla haven
• TV geologist warns that energy crisis is on the way - so what are we going to do about it?

Sunday 8th February

• EU Pushes For Greater Integration Into An Energy Union
• The steepness of the oil price crash can't be explained by supply and demand alone
• Russia’s Gazprom survey new pipeline route

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