Best green electricity in Ireland

Ireland has one electricity grid. Whatever supplier’s name is on your bill, ESB Networks delivers the same blended mix of wind, gas, solar and imports to your meter — so a “green supplier” is never a claim about the electrons in your socket. It is a claim about where your money goes. That makes this ranking different from our cheapest electricity page: we rank the nine suppliers on two axes — how well each one can prove its green claim, and what year one and year two actually cost at CRU typical usage (4,200 kWh).

The proof axis produces the strangest result in Irish energy: the supplier with the strongest green evidence, Community Power, publishes a fuel-mix disclosure that looks less green than the incumbents’ — precisely because it refuses to buy the EU certificates that make everyone else’s disclosure look spotless. We explain that paradox below, put every supplier on a plain-English evidence ladder, and answer the question most shoppers actually have: do you pay extra for green, and how much?

How do we rank green electricity suppliers?

The order above is a two-step sort. First, each supplier’s green-evidence score — our 0–10 rating of how the claim is proven, from Irish community generation at the top to no claim at all at the bottom. Second, where suppliers tie on evidence (the six certificate-matchers all land close together), we order them by their cheapest verified year-1 urban electricity bill. Every figure was checked on the supplier’s own site this week; where a figure is not verified we print “—” rather than guess.

All nine suppliers we track sell electricity, so nobody is excluded from this page — including the two that make no green claim at all. That is deliberate: a shopper deciding whether green is worth paying for needs to see what the non-green alternative costs, and a supplier that claims nothing is being more honest than one waving a badge it cannot back up.

Two housekeeping notes. Every ranking on matched.ie shows year-1 and year-2 cost, because a 12-month new-customer discount is not a cheap supplier. And matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited price-comparison site — the accredited comparators are listed on cru.ie. We rank retailers and explain the market; the switch itself takes 2–4 weeks and your supply never cuts (see how to switch).

What actually counts as proof that electricity is green?

Green claims in Ireland sit on a ladder with four rungs. The higher the rung, the closer your money gets to actual renewable generation on this island.

Rung 3 is where nearly every “100% green” badge in the market lives, so it is worth being precise about what a Guarantee of Origin does. It is an EU-wide certificate saying one megawatt-hour of renewable electricity was generated somewhere in Europe. A supplier tots up its customers’ annual usage, buys and retires that many certificates, and can then disclose a 100% renewable fuel mix — even though the certificates may have been issued to a hydro station two seas away, and even though its customers drew the ordinary grid mix all year. It is annual paperwork matching. It does move money towards renewable generators, which is not nothing — but it is the weakest form of proof that still counts as proof.

The official scoreboard for all this is the fuel-mix disclosure published under CRU/SEM rules, which every supplier must show. Because the disclosure counts certificates, it produces numbers like the one in our SSE dataset: SSE Airtricity discloses 100% renewable electricity while the 2024 all-island average — with those same certificates counted — was 62.35% renewable. The gap between those two figures is filled by certificates, not turbines.

Why does the greenest supplier’s fuel mix look the least green?

Here is the paradox that decides our number one. Community Power — community-owned, buying output from small Irish community wind and hydro generators, with community solar farms in Mayo, Galway and Tipperary in development — publishes a disclosed fuel mix that is not 100% renewable. Meanwhile suppliers whose green story is a certificate invoice disclose a perfect score.

The reason is the accounting, not the electricity. Fuel-mix disclosure rewards whoever holds the certificates. Community Power refuses to buy Guarantees of Origin on principle — its position is that Irish community generation should not need imported paper to prove itself — and without GOs its disclosure defaults towards the residual grid mix. The honest flip side of refusing certificates is a browner-looking disclosure. If you rank suppliers by their disclosed percentage, you reward certificate shopping; if you rank them by what your bill actually funds, Community Power is first by a distance. We rank on the second basis, and its 9.5/10 evidence score reflects that.

The rest of the field is not all identical either. Energia’s parent group genuinely owns and runs Irish wind farms, and SSE generates wind on this island — their certificates are closer to home than a pure trading desk, but the household badge still works by annual GO matching, so they sit on rung 3 together with Bord Gáis, Flogas and Pinergy. Electric Ireland is the interesting in-between: its standard supply makes no green claim and follows the disclosed mix, while its dearer Green plans are GO-backed add-ons. And Yuno and Prepay Power claim nothing — which costs them evidence points here, but spares you paying a premium for paper.

Is green electricity more expensive in Ireland?

In year one, usually — but the gap is smaller than the teaser deals make it look, and by year two it inverts. The bars below are each supplier’s cheapest verified 24-hour plan (urban, CRU 4,200 kWh, all figures checked on the suppliers’ own sites this week). Green bars are year 1; the rust bars are the same plan at year-2 standard rates.

Read year one alone and the “green premium” for the best-evidenced supplier is real: Community Power’s €1,684 is €389 dearer than SSE’s GO-badged fixed deal at €1,295. But Community Power charges one variable rate to everyone — there is no teaser, so there is no month-13 cliff. Stay put for two years and the maths flips: €3,368 with Community Power against €3,613 on Energia’s route (€1,538 then €2,075), €3,568 with Bord Gáis, €3,828 with Flogas — and even Electric Ireland’s gentler landing totals €3,480. Only SSE’s fixed-then-standard path edges it, at €3,305, by €63 — and that assumes you accept SSE’s €100 fixed-plan exit fee and a €2,010 standard rate in year two rather than switching again (the game explained in year 1 vs year 2).

Meter type and geography shift these numbers. On a day/night meter, Community Power’s own published bill is €1,544 — which cuts the year-one premium over SSE’s fixed deal to €249 and makes its two-year total €3,088, cheaper than every rival path on this page. Rural (DG2) homes pay higher standing charges everywhere: Community Power’s 24-hour bill rises €46 to €1,730, SSE’s fixed plan €61 to €1,356, and Energia’s rural standing charge adds €72 to each of its figures. And every bill here already includes the PSO levy — €1.59 a month including VAT until 30 September 2026, falling to €0.56 from 1 October (CRU) — which funds renewable support for all customers regardless of supplier.

The full picture, using each supplier’s cheapest verified electricity plan of any meter type (the same figures as the cards above):

“—” means not verified on the supplier’s site this week, so we do not print a figure. Smart-plan bills assume you can keep load out of the 17:00–19:00 peak; Community Power also publishes smart time-of-use rates (day 34.72c, night 21.24c, peak 39.84c, all inc VAT) but no annual bill, because the outcome depends entirely on your peak share.

Does going green mean giving up dual fuel?

Often, yes — and it is the most practical objection to the top pick. Community Power and Pinergy sell electricity only. If you heat with gas, choosing either means running two suppliers: green-evidenced electricity from one, gas from another. That is a perfectly normal pattern, not a compromise — gas is a fossil fuel with carbon tax on every kWh, so there is no green version of the gas leg worth paying for anyway. The only renewable-gas claim in our dataset is Bord Gáis Energy’s statement that 10% of its gas comes from renewable sources.

The GO-badged big brands will happily bundle: SSE, Energia, Bord Gáis, Flogas and Electric Ireland all sell dual fuel, and the bundle discounts are real in year one. But remember what the badge covers — the electricity leg’s certificates, not the gas burning in your boiler — and remember that dual fuel usually means two exit fees if you leave early. If one direct debit matters more to you than the evidence ladder, start at best dual fuel and treat the green badge as a tiebreaker. If the evidence matters more, pair your electricity pick with the sharpest standalone deal from cheapest gas.

Which green electricity supplier should you actually choose?

• You want your bill to fund Irish renewables, full stop: Community Power. Strongest evidence in the market, €0 exit fee, no year-2 cliff — and on a day/night meter (€1,544) it is cheap outright. Accept a small supplier with no app and gas kept elsewhere.
• You want a green badge and the lowest year-1 bill: SSE Airtricity’s fixed plan at €1,295 — GO-backed rather than community-generated, with a €100 exit fee and a €2,010 standard rate waiting if you drift past month 12.
• You want green-badged and dual fuel: Energia or SSE — both GO-matchers with real Irish wind in the group, both with deep first-year discounts; diarise month 11 either way.
• You would rather pay nothing extra and skip the badge: Yuno’s smart discount at €1,618 makes no green claim at all — read our Yuno review for the €100-per-fuel exit fee and variable-rate caveats before jumping.
• You are on prepay: Pinergy carries a GO-backed claim, but at €2,052 a year plus a €150 ex-VAT exit fee, budget control is what you are buying — the green label is incidental.

Whoever you land on, the mechanics are identical: the new supplier handles everything with your MPRN and a meter reading, the switch takes two to four weeks, and your lights never flicker. Undecided between two names? Find your energy narrows it in thirty seconds.

Keep reading

• Best energy in Ireland: the flagship supplier ranking.
• How to switch energy supplier: MPRN, GPRN, cooling-off — supply never cuts.
• Year 1 vs year 2 energy prices: the discount cliff every ranking here prices in.
• Find your energy: 30-second matcher.

About the author

Conor Ryan

Energy Switching Analyst

Conor Ryan has tracked Irish gas and electricity prices, tariffs and switching since 2019. He builds matched.ie’s energy comparison tools and tests how smart meters and time-of-use plans affect household bills.

7+ years analysing Irish energy marketsCertified in Energy Efficiency (SEAI) and Electricity SupplyFocus on SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland, Energia and Bord GáisBased in Limerick, covers domestic and small-business tariffs