A group of Virgin Mobile alumni says it has launched a new retail power utility in Britain that operates out of a cell phone and delivers “fresh, clean 100% renewable energy for a lower price than power that pollutes.”
Describing itself as purely “digital” company, Pure Planet’s business model is new. Subscribers pay £10 a month for their choice of energy source: wind, tidal, solar, or natural gas whose carbon emissions the company claims will be 100% offset. Beyond that, subscribers receive their power at or near the company’s own wholesale cost, according to a description in the UK’s Clean Energy News.
- Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
- A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
- The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Because the company’s actual work entails marketing, electron accounting, and billing, it has no physical infrastructure of its own. Its user-facing presence consists of apps for mobile devices and an “Artificial Intelligence bot” for customer service. With that business model and its novel pricing scheme, the company says it can deliver electricity at “prices that are substantially lower than the Big 6 [UK utilities] through a single tariff, and no ‘rip-off rates’ associated with variable tariffs.”
Pure Planet’s stripped-down marketing and billing role will leave Britons with “no excuse not to choose renewable energy,” says co-founder and CEO Andrew Ralston. “It’s now cheaper and much better value than the alternative. And it doesn’t pollute the environment.”
