INTERVIEW
Juliet Davenport, Good Energy Group
‘
We create innovation
– and when it works
’
big guys do the same
As the chief executive of Good Energy, the UK’s only supplier of electricity solely from 100% renewable
sources, Juliet Davenport is on a mission. She tells Erik Jaques why she’s frustrated by government policy
– and how she hopes the company can play a major role in moving the nation towards its targets
I
f the recession was supposed to have taken (7% from Delabole windfarm), 15% hydro, by almost three years.
the wind out of the UK renewable energy 5.9% biomass and 0.1% solar; since 1999, the Last year also saw Good Energy launch an
sector’s sales, nobody told the Good Energy company claims to have reduced the UK’s online educational-cum-retail hub that pro-
Group. In its August interim report, the CO
2
emissions by 296,000 tonnes – a figure it vides advice and sells energy-saving gizmos,
owner of Good Energy, the UK’s only suppli- says is “equivalent to over 33,000 family-sized from lightbulbs and measurement products to
er of electricity solely from 100% renewable cars driving around the equator”. solar powered novelty items.
sources, reported revenue rises of 29% on the “I see Good Energy as a kind of disruptor The urge to innovate is in Davenport’s
same period last year to £9.68M, with pre-tax company,” Davenport explains. blood. As a child she would frequently
profits up 13% to £273,175. “We create innovation and when it works, accompany her rally driver journalist father to
The company feeds green electricity into which hopefully it does most of the time, we racetracks across the country, revelling in the
the grid on behalf of more than 25,000 cus- see some of the big guys innovating in the competitive thrill of pushing technology to
tomers, including sustainability stalwarts such same way.” the limit. After studying atmospheric physics
as Innocent smoothies and Friends of the A prime example of this came last year at Oxford, Davenport fuelled her burgeoning
Earth, in a valiant attempt to bolster a total interest in climate change by completing a
national output figure hovering pitifully Masters degree in environmental economics at
around the 6% mark. While the Department Birkbeck College, London.
of Energy and Climate Change’s target of 15%
electricity from renewable sources by 2020
seems illusory, Good Energy Group chief
executive officer Juliet Davenport intends to
‘
If we took the bull by the horns
Formative career developments followed at
and put the right policies in place
the European Commission and the European
the targets would be completely Parliament. “The good things were the incred-
achievable, but if we shilly-shally
ibly bright people and the ideas, the problem
do her damndest to move things forward. was the pace of change just seemed to be so
Good Energy’s philosophy is to offer a
viable alternative to the ‘big six’ electricity
cabal (EDF, EON, British Gas, npower,
Scottish and Southern Energy, and Scottish
’
around they won’t be slow, and it also seemed so disconnected from
individuals in their countries back home.”
She returned to the UK in 1999 to work for
when, in response to customer demand for a German environmental consultancy ESD on a
Power), by bringing power to the people by duel-fuel package, Good Energy started sup- project to set up renewable energy company
helping people make power. plying gas. This presented an ideological Unit-Energy. The following year there was a
In addition to the wholly-owned Delabole quandary, as the UK network is incompatible management buy out and Davenport, who
wind farm in Cornwall (ten turbines, averaging with renewable gas. was appointed company CEO, rebranded the
10,000MWh a year), the company pays almost Noting that while half of the UK’s CO
2
operation into Good Energy.
1,000 independent generators to produce ener- emissions come from heating only 0.6% of the It made its first share offering in 2002, gen-
gy through deals such as HomeGen (15p per ‘heat’ demand stems from renewable erating enough capital to purchase the
unit of electricity, including those created for resources, Good Energy transformed con- Delabole wind farm. Further share offers were
personal use), SmartGen (for small commercial straint into opportunity, plumping for regular made in 2004 when Good Energy joined the
and large domestic generators with significant gas but choosing to siphon subsequent rev- PLUS Market, a small and mid-cap stock
export capacity), as well as a competitive com- enues into what is the UK’s first renewable exchange in London, and in 2007, raising £2M
mercial scheme for large-scale operations. heat incentive scheme. Rewarding microgen- from customers and independent investors.
In 2008, Good Energy facilitated a con- erators of heat from solar thermal panels, it Today, the majority of Good Energy’s share-
scionable energy mix comprising 79% wind pre-empts the Government’s plans in this field holders are also its customers.
26 November/December 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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