Simon Lock, our Sustainability Director, recently completed Carbon Literacy training with Futureproof Cumbria. Here are some of his thoughts on making cleaner, cheaper energy choices easier to understand.
Did you know that when it’s windy and sunny, electricity can be both cheaper and lower carbon?
It’s a simple idea, but it rarely feels simple in practice.
For owners of older buildings, heritage assets and public estates, energy decisions are rarely straightforward. These buildings often come with higher running costs, fabric constraints, planning considerations and long-term responsibilities. Not every improvement can be made quickly, and not every building can be treated in the same way.
But some decisions can still be simpler than we make them.
What if everyday weather forecasts also told us when energy was cheapest and cleanest? Suddenly, small choices such as doing the laundry, charging an EV, running appliances or planning higher-energy tasks can become useful financial and climate actions.
The Carbon Literacy Project
As Sustainability Director at Woohoo, I spend a lot of my time helping reduce emissions across the built environment, particularly where buildings are older, listed, sensitive or difficult to change.
As part of my CPD last year, I undertook Carbon Literacy training with Futureproof Cumbria. While I already had a good knowledge of emissions, there are always opportunities to improve, question assumptions and look at where small actions can lead to wider change.
As part of the certification process with The Carbon Literacy Project, you make pledges on a personal and community level to find ways to collectively reduce emissions.
Like many people working in this space, I have already made significant personal changes, including switching away from fossil fuels and continuing to lower my own emissions where I can.
So the question became: what next?
From personal action to wider impact
One takeaway stood out: the importance of sharing knowledge with as many people as possible.
Not in theory, but in practice.
At the moment, the UK is still turning off large amounts of renewable energy, during an energy crisis.
When wind generation is high, turbines can be switched off because the grid cannot absorb the excess electricity. At the same time, we may end up using more expensive gas-generated electricity later, when demand rises and renewable generation is lower.
In 2026 so far, we have collectively spent over £800m turning off wind turbines, according to wastedwind.energy.
This is a huge missed opportunity. Not just for the energy system, but for households, businesses, building owners and local authorities who are all trying to manage bills and reduce emissions.
In many cases, the action itself is not complicated. It could be as simple as shifting daily tasks away from the late afternoon and early evening peak, or planning larger weekly tasks for times when renewable energy is more plentiful.
For heritage building owners, this does not replace the need for proper fabric-first advice, sensitive retrofit or long-term decarbonisation planning. But it can sit alongside those measures.
It is a low-disruption way to understand energy better, use it more intelligently and make existing buildings work harder before larger interventions are made.
The data already exists. Forecasts for wind and solar generation are produced continuously by the Met Office and the National Energy System Operator. But they are not always presented in a way that helps people act.
If you want to see this in practice, this website gives a useful view of forecasted emissions and prices: Click here
So why not make this forecast highly visible, as part of everyday life?
Making energy patterns visible
Imagine this as part of a standard weather forecast:
- “High winds overnight — a good time to charge your EV.”
- “Strong sunshine today — useful time to run appliances.”
- “Still and overcast — energy likely to be more expensive and carbon intensive.”
Small signals. Scaled across millions of people.
For those on time-of-use tariffs, this kind of visibility could unlock real savings. In some cases, even allow people to earn money by using electricity when supply is high.
For everyone else, it builds awareness. And awareness drives change.
Only around 10% of buildings are on time-of-use tariffs and the vast majority of people could save money on these tariffs if they can make small adjustments to their usage patterns. If people moved to time-of-use tariffs they would respond to price cues that would be chasing renewable energy and get financially rewarded for doing so.
It will not solve every challenge. Heritage buildings still need the right advice, the right interventions and a proper understanding of their fabric, use and significance.
But better energy visibility can help people make better choices now, while those longer-term plans are developed.
Beyond cost: unlocking system-wide benefits
The impact goes further than individual bills. Better alignment between demand and renewable supply could:
- Reduce wasted clean energy
- Lower system costs
- Encourage greater investment in renewables
- Support grid stability
- Help organisations reduce operational emissions
- Support progress towards Net Zero
Importantly, it also makes low-carbon living more accessible.
Not something reserved for specialists. Not something only available through major capital projects. But something embedded into everyday decision-making.
For heritage and older buildings, that point is important. Decarbonisation is not always about doing the biggest thing first. Sometimes it starts with understanding the building, understanding the energy system, and making better choices with the information already available.
From insight to action
The Carbon Literacy Project has highlighted this campaign in their latest blog to try to help generate a ripple effect. Turning individual understanding into simple collective and effective action.
For me, that meant taking a simple idea and pushing it further: advocating for clearer, more accessible energy information and exploring how communication, not just technology, can unlock change.
Because the transition to a low-carbon future is not only about infrastructure.
It is about behaviour. It is about visibility. And ultimately, it is about people.
A simple takeaway
If it is sunny and windy, electricity is often cheaper and greener.