Empowering a shift for good 

Amber was founded by climate activist Dan Adams and techie mate Chris Thompson to solve the biggest problem holding Australia back from reaching 100% renewable energy: making it easier and rewarding for more Aussies to use more green energy and act on climate change. While other green energy providers focus on offsetting your fossil fuel energy use, we’re laser-focused on helping you reduce your fossil fuel use in the first place.

Right now, for anyone on a traditional retail energy plan - even a green energy plan - it’s very hard to actually use more green energy. We all draw power from the same grid and traditional plans don’t provide you with the tools you need - for example, live wholesale energy prices that drop when there’s more green energy in the grid, and the % of renewable energy in real time. Amber empowers you to make a choice.

All energy retailers buy their electricity from the same wholesale electricity market, where prices are set every 30 minutes by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The wholesale price is the true price for your usage that Amber (and other retailers) have to pay to provide you energy. 

It’s normal for the wholesale price to fluctuate up or down in each 30 minute period depending on supply and demand, encouraging more power generation when the grid needs it, and less when it doesn’t.

The wholesale price that Amber passes through includes wholesale energy costs (which vary every 30 mins), hedging costs (a small fee to cover the cost of offering our Amber price guarantee), the rates charged by your local network (who own the poles and wires), metering costs and regulated charges for environmental schemes and market operations. We also add on a carbon offset to make your energy use carbon neutral.

Amber makes nothing at all from your energy usage. Our $19/month subscription fee is our only margin for running Amber.

Check out this explainer to learn more about what drives the wholesale price up and down. You can find out more about what your bill with Amber would include here.

While Amber offers the same 100% Carbon Neutral and GreenPower plans as other electricity providers, our model goes a step further than the rest. For a $19 a month subscription, you get access to wholesale electricity prices and the Amber app which enable you to shift more of your energy use to when power is both greener and cheaper.

Unlike other energy retailers who charge a mark-up on the energy you use, Amber makes exactly $0 on your energy usage and empowers you to go beyond offsetting. We’re so committed to our ​​mission that the monthly fee is the only revenue we generate to run the business.