Go Greener – Offset Your Electricity!
I wanted to talk about something that everyone who lives “on the grid” can do to help offset their carbon footprint just that much more and that makes you feel good every time you flip on a switch in your home.
I’m talking renewable energy such as wind power. Yeah, baby. In my town, our power company offers a renewable energy program for as little as $1.50 a month for a block of 100 kWh (kilowatt hour) to offset your electricity usage. Businesses can also subscribe to this type of program, too. You the consumer can buy in blocks of kWh or can choose to purchase all of your electrical usage to come from only renewable sources and you would pay an additional fee per kWh – in my town it’s 1.5 cents per kWh. Even if you purchased 500 kWh, that would only cost you an additional $7.50 per month.
We originally were just buying 500 kWh instead of buying all of it because we were also donating money every month to a program that helps those in need pay their electric bills but then I calculated it out and really, at the maximum it will cost us between $13-$20 (depending on the season) total additional added to my electric bill each month for getting all of our electric use offset so we decided to do it. It feels so good! I feel almost as good as when I really did live entirely off the grid for a few years. And, as with everything, the more people who subscribe to these programs and offset their electricity usage by purchasing renewable energy, the cheaper it will become for everyone and that much better for the environment.
Let me tell you what just a measly $1.50 (100kWh or one block of purchased renewable energy) added to your electric bill each month is equivalent to:
- Planting a half acre of trees
- Not driving a gasoline powered car 2,400 miles
Now imagine offsetting all of your electric usage each month what that would be equivalent to.
Basically, electricity generated by wind and other renewable sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal, solar and biomass do not produce air or water emissions. They do not create solid or hazardous waste nor do they contribute carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Using renewable energy instead of coal, natural gas or oil avoids the environmental impacts of mining, drilling, transporting and burning those fuels.
Here where I live, they purchase primarily wind energy from a wind farm in a neighboring state as well as “Renewable Energy Certificates” (RECs) which are purchased from renewable energy facilities owned by other utilities.
RECs represent the legal right to the environmental benefits associated with replacing one megawatt hour of energy on the electricity grid (which most of that comes from coal and gas from the Rocky Mountains).
Some of you may be wondering how do we know they are actually using this extra money to purchase renewable energy? Well, have no fear – the Green-e Program certifies that (said power company)’s renewable energy meets the minimum environmental and consumer protection standards established by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions . Just look for their symbol on your power company’s website or renewable energy literature or you can purchase renewable energy here.
I know money may be tight for some families right now but even if you can only afford an extra $1.50 each month to go towards a renewable energy program, it’s like you are planting a half acre of trees every month and didn’t drive 2,400 miles. Isn’t that doing so much for such a small price? I think our planet is worth at least that tiny effort and believe me, you will feel so good!
June 19 2008 09:05 pm | activism and green living and news and society
June 20th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Hi! Just came across your great post on RECs. I work for a San Francisco based REC vendor named Village Green Energy. I would just add one thing to your post – there is a big difference which states you purchase your RECs from.
In some states the electric companies are required to be a certain percent renewable by a certain year. In California, it’s 20% by 2010. The electric companies meet this goal by buying RECs. So if you buy California RECs, the California electric companies need to go out and build new capacity to replace the RECs you’ve purchased as a voluntary customer. If you do the same thing in say Nebraska (which doesn’t have the law) the local electric companies don’t need to replace your purchase, so very little difference is made.
This is the big secret in the REC world – as you might guess, RECs from Nebraska are cheaper, so many vendors source from these states. And Green-e doesn’t make the distinction either.
Village Green is basing its business model off of only buying RECs from these states where it makes a difference. If you want to learn more, check out: http://www.villagegreenenergy.com/real-green-power.
Mike
June 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for the tip, Mike!
I’m glad that where I am buying renewable energy from (my power co) they are buying mainly wind power from the wind farm in Medicine Bow, WY.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
[...] on what it was like this summer having switched over to 100% wind power. I wrote back in June a detailed post about how we decided that instead of paying just an extra $7.50/mo for buying a block of partial [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Great site you have here! Hopefully other towns and cities will begin to offer programs such as this, it really is a small price to pay when you look at the big picture.
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