1/ On #EarthDay2020 some incredibly hopeful, climate-saving, and downright weird things are happening in energy

Yesterday, ~half of the UK’s power came from renewables. This week, for the first time ever, the barrel price of oil crashed below zero. What's going on?

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2/ Even though we’re at home, the Coronavirus outbreak has seen a decrease in national energy demand

In the UK, factories, schools and businesses have come to a standstill, cutting national demand by around ~17%. (Credit: @ChetJPatel @ICISOfficial)

3/ Unseasonably windy and sunny April weather has meant that at certain times over the past few days, solar and wind power alone was MORE than enough to cover the UK’s energy demand

4/ Low demand more green energy means:
The market price of power is falling
Green, intermittent power sources like solar/wind consistently make up an bigger share of the UK’s supply (Credit: @KateRoseMorley @ http://grid.iamkate.com/ )

5/ This #EarthDay , our strange new world shows both how necessary, and how viable, a green energy system is.

Every year, more and more of the UK’s power comes from intermittent sources (i.e. they're only available when the sun shines, or the wind blows). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wind-power-coal-climate-change-renewable-energy-a9273541.html

6/ These sources are green and renewable: brilliant. BUT, they aren’t 'consistent' (and able to be 'turned up/down' at will) like traditional fossil fuels, making grid balancing tricky.
The industry is racing to address this challenge with storage. But that alone won’t cut it.

7/ We need to totally rethink how we use energy, with consumers leading the charge. Enter #agileOctopus
In the run-up to #EarthDay2020 , thousands of customers on our Agile tariff have been paid for the energy they use throughout the day https://octopus.energy/blog/social-distancing-renewable-energy-negative-pricing/

8/ How does it work?
When demand is low, and the grid’s green sun/wind power could go to waste, low (or negative) #Agile prices encourage people to shift energy use to the greenest times , so they’re using less in the busiest (and dirtiest) times E.g https://twitter.com/cleevelyev/status/1246713976999772167?s=20

9/ #agileOctopus is a blueprint for adapting to a low-carbon grid, a way forward from the current system where fossil fuel generators fire up based on demand.

Instead, people are empowered to make smart choices to use green power when it's abundant https://twitter.com/DBBurt/status/1203636331924115456?s=20

10/ For a low-carbon grid, load shifting must go further, with #smarthomes that power up automatically when the sun shines

But for some #Agile customers, that future is now.

On #EarthDay2020 , in unprecedented and scary times, smart green energy is one thing giving us hope