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Well this is the tricky bit isn't it? Does the fact that there are suppliers like Bulb fronting the consumer side of it, lead to increased production of renewable?
If the answer to this is "no" - you are just being over charged for your electricity.
Most renewable electricity in this country is generated based on subsidies, like the Renewable Obligation, Feed-in Tariff and Contracts for Difference - all set up by the government and paid for by all electricity bill payers.
The first two in that list are now basically shut to new projects, with just CfDs remaining. Perhaps, if a new renewable electricity project can factor in being able to sell it's power at a higher price, they can afford to bid for a lower subsidy under the CfD mechanism and a re therefore more likely to be successful and more likely to get built.
Personally, I think green tariffs are all a bit fishy, but as long as they are doing no massive harm, not that bad. I just don't think people should think they are being super eco by choosing one, as I don't they are really driving increasing generation of green electricity.
Edit - here's a good article that seems balanced.
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/do-green-energy-tariffs-make-difference
Scrabble-
Oh I agree with 95% of that, the bit I disagree with was the first sentence, I signed up for Bulb mainly as they were the cheapest (of the recognisable) suppliers when I looked. They can probably do this as they are not fixed rate deals, so rates could go up significantly in the future, but I will just churn away if they do.
My point about bring Bulb up at the start was the interesting side point of the fact that if electric cars become the norm, it potentially puts a huge strain on the already highly burdened national grid. Systems like the smart chargers they are trialling will have to be used to try and negate some of this, as well as potentially increase supply, which I would hope would come from renewable rather other sources. Would be a bit of a bummer if consumers flocked to electric cars as they think they are better for the environment, only for it to lead to new coal fired power stations being built.
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subsidies
The cost of renewable generation has come down massively though, and with enough investment can easily come down further.
If you look at the data from the EU, you see a noticeable inflection around 2010 in the production of electrical energy generation from bio, solar, and wind (wind being the largest contributor). How come then?
People miss that fossil fuels are currently cheap because the infrastructure has predominantly already been paid for.
The challenge is renewables currently don't seem to offer one solution. The future looks more like it will be a mix. Still there is so much scope - even when you look at how under utilized biogas is given how much food, etc. we waste.
At the moment it seems like off-shore wind is where it's at. But even solar has dropped in cost.
Sam_w
hugo7
Dunno on this point, guess it depends on what happens with excess supply, not something I know anything about either.
Well this is the tricky bit isn't it? Does the fact that there are suppliers like Bulb fronting the consumer side of it, lead to increased production of renewables? I can't see it being a bad thing either way.