Energy Secretary Ed Davey is dodging his own green taxes – by switching his gas and electricity supplier to a company exempt from the charges slapped on domestic bills.

The Cabinet Minister is now spared from paying the average £112-a-year ‘green duty’ added to most domestic bills after he moved his account to a firm that does not have to pay it.

Last night, a senior Tory MP accused Lib Dem Mr Davey of ‘tax avoidance’ by ‘finding a way’ to escape the levies.

Ed Davey is now spared from paying the average £112-a-year ‘green duty’ added to most domestic bills after he moved his account to a firm that does not have to pay it

The Mail on Sunday has highlighted the rocketing cost of the UK’s green commitments, which include cutting the power industry’s CO2 emissions by 90 per cent by 2030 and tripling the proportion of power generated from wind, solar and ‘biomass’ sources.

Experts say the plan will cost in excess of £100 billion – all funded by a tariff on domestic and business consumers.

Mr Davey recently changed from Sainsbury’s Energy to Green Star Energy to supply gas and electricity to his Kingston constituency home.

Green Star – which, despite its name, is not an eco-certified company – does not have to pay green taxes because it is a new firm with fewer than 250,000 customers. Its average household bill is just over £1,009 a year, compared with Sainsbury’s average of £1,264 – meaning Mr Davey could potentially save about £255 annually.

The average standard bill across all energy suppliers is around £1,346. Green sceptic Peter Lilley, a Tory member of the energy and climate change committee, said last night: ‘He is paying less than most people as he is not being hit with those levies, it is as simple as that. He has found a way to avoid this unfair burden on families which his own department is inflicting. It is a form of tax avoidance.’

Smaller firms also do not have to pay for the Energy Company Obligation, which costs customers about £47 a year towards the cost of funding insulation for low-income households.

Mr Davey has saved around £255 by switching from Sainsbury's to Green Star Energy

And they are exempt from the Warm Homes Scheme, which offers extra support to anyone struggling to afford their energy bills, such as the elderly.

However, if Mr Davey’s decision encourages enough other customers to switch to Green Star and the firm passes the 250,000 threshold, it too will be liable for the green levies.

Last week it was revealed more than 900 onshore and offshore wind turbines were built in the past year, with the annual bill for green subsidies topping £3billion. Of that, an estimated £765 million went to onshore wind farms; £935 million to offshore wind farms; £800 million to biomass plants; £500 million to solar plants and £100 million to hydroelectric power. Wind power produced nine per cent of the nation’s electricity, up from six per cent in 2012. Energy firms complain that, as a result, some gas plants are left barely running, further pushing up electricity bills.

The Energy Secretary made his account switch through Big Deal Energy. Mr Davey said the figures showed ‘that the Government’s investment in renewable energy is paying off’.