Keenest for Green

There’s no denying that green energy is the future. A future that may be closer than we think. Renewables are now expected to overtake coal by next year (2025) as the world’s largest source of electricity, providing 35% of the total global energy demand compared to 33% coming from coal.

In the UK, the government has a target of decarbonising the UK’s electricity generation fully by 2035 - a target in hopes of achieving the long-term goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

With around 26% of UK emissions coming from households, there’s a strong case that the change to green should start at home. In fact, our previous research about energy waste in the UK found that the average person leaves the lights in their home on unnecessarily for 3 hours and 36 seconds every single day - that’s over 21 hours wasted each week.

But exactly where in the UK are people keenest for the move to green energy?

To find out, the 100Green team studied online searches for green energy related terms to allow us to uncover which of the UK’s cities have people who are the ‘keenest for green’. Check out our results below.

Which UK cities topped the keenest for green list?

As the global call for environmental consciousness grows ever louder, people across the UK are becoming more aware of their impact on the planet. Whether that’s choosing to walk instead of taking the car or growing your own vegetables for Christmas.

Our research found that Truro is the city in the UK where people are keenest for green energy, with an average of 109 monthly online searches per 100,000 people across terms like ‘green energy tariffs’, ‘renewable energy suppliers’, ‘why is green energy important’ and ‘solar panels’.

Truro is a cathedral city located in Cornwall - one of the UK’s leading counties when it comes to the green economy. However, this might not be surprising considering its extensive coastline and the fact that the county is one of the sunniest parts of the UK, with up to 1,600 hours of sunshine each year.

Similarly, around 40% of all electricity in Cornwall is now generated through renewables, with a county-wide aim to be net zero twenty years ahead of the rest of the UK! Clearly, the green efforts of Cornwall are rubbing off on its inhabitants.

Following Truro was Ely, with 91 monthly online searches per capita, then Ripon (75) and Bangor (68).

Take a look at the top 10 cities keenest for green below:

Which City	Which Country	‘Green’ Energy searches per capita (per 100,000)
Truro	England	109
Ely	England	91
Ripon	England	75
Bangor	Wales	68
Durham	England	61
Stirling	Scotland	58
Chichester	England	58
Salisbury	England	55
Perth	Scotland	51
Litchfield	England	48

Which of the UK’s four countries show the most online interest in green energy?

Despite energy remaining a matter that is specifically reserved to the UK parliament and not devolved to each nation, our research found that the interest in green energy varied, with those living in Scotland’s eight cities showing the most interest - an average of 32 online monthly searches per capita.

Interestingly, new statistics show that renewable sources produced 113% of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption in 2022. For the first time, Scotland reduced more renewable electricity than it consumed, something that perhaps has rubbed off on the Scots as their green energy online searches place them as the country keenest for green in the UK.

Following Scotland was Wales (31 monthly searches per capita), then England (27) and Northern Ireland (25).

Doug Stewart, Chairman of 100Green comments: “With energy prices falling this week in the April price cap, we hope it will encourage people to look at the green alternatives available in the market where for so long the instability of wholesale prices has created a stagnant market with little obvious choice.

“Our biggest climate obstacle as a country is to move away from fossil fuels and we’re pleased to see this topic rising back up the list of people’s priorities.

“100Green is the only supplier who can offer a zero-fossil-fuel tariff to customers who are using gas and electricity. “At an individual level, the small premium per week to move away from fossil fuels now, equates to the price of a takeaway cappuccino.”

Methodology

100Green studied online monthly search volumes for over 30 green energy related terms, including ‘green energy tariffs’, ‘renewable energy companies’, ‘solar panels’, ‘heat pumps’, ‘warm home discount scheme’ and ‘why is green energy important’.

We then looked at these keywords in relation to the number of people in each UK city searching for them on a monthly basis and compared these figures to the population of each city.

We then took our population and keyword search figures and compared to every 100,000 people (per capita) that live in each city to determine which of the UK’s cities are keenest for green.

Please note: Wells, Westminster, Armagh, St Asaph and St Davids were all excluded from the findings of this research as data on the number of monthly searches for the terms could not be determined.