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[info]illianaspeedstr in [info]worldwithoutoil

Move along. No green energy here.

I know alot of power companies out there offer green alternatives. Customers can pay a little more and be confident that the energy they use is created by wind, solar or some other green alternative.  Netizen BrianEnigma just switched over to 100% windpower.  Has anyone else taken advantage of that option (if it's available?) 

I've been waiting for years for our power company to offer a green alternative.  Back in '99 they were going to try out what they called a "green" alternative - wood.  I, um, guess that's sort of green. 

When I sent an email asking about their current green options I received this response...

Thank you for contacting NIPSCO.  While we currently do not have a "Green Power" tariff, we do offer a Net Metering program to residential customers and schools (K-12) that own and operate a solar, wind or hydro-electrical generating facility, with name plate capacity of less than or equal to 10kw.  Information about the Net Metering program is attached below.

Feel free to contact us again if we can be of further assistance.

So I guess I'm on my own, huh?  Don't worry.  I'm not done with them just yet.  I'm going to do a little more investigation.

So here's a Carboneer mission for you.  I want you to do a little research.  Find out if your power company has a green alternative.  If they do, find out how much more it would cost you to go entirely green.  Get as much information as you can.  Email them.  Call them.  Find out all the details.  If they don't have a green option, contact them anyway and ask why.  Email them.  Call them.  I'm giving away a One-ton Carbon offset.  Impress me and you'll be the one to get it.

Comments

My company here in the UK - like most of them nowadays - offers green energy for a little more. There's a lot of wind power, particularly in Scotland, that allows this.
http://www.npower.com/at_home/juice-clean_and_green.html

Juice is generated from a number of renewable energy sources, primarily at North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm. As a Juice customer, npower matches every unit of normal electricity that you use and feeds the same amount, generated from renewable sources, into the electricity network*. It's as simple as that.
No extra cost

There is no premium to pay with Juice. It costs exactly the same as standard npower electricity. So it's good for you and good for the environment.

Switch your fuel supply to npower Juice!

OOG: Sounds really good - If I wasn't moving out in a month I'd do it! Thanks for prompting me to look!

Incidentally one of my physics lectures last week was on tidal power. My lecturer dropped a sentence that floored me. The Severn river/estuary has the second highest tide in the world and the famous tidal wave style bore a few times a year (a few metres and surfable, apparently). That's not the surprising bit.

He told our class that if a barrage was to be put across the Severn like it has been on the Thames and others, the large change in tide on the river could provide as much as ONE TENTH of all of the UK's power. I was absolutely floored by that statistic. I'm not sure I'll be quite so dismissive about building a barrage in future...
I've mentioned this before, but here's the options for Delaware/Maryland/Virgina -

http://www.pepcoenergy.com/ProductsAndServices/residentialServices.aspx?MarketCode=Residential

Two options

1) Wind Energy - 100 percent windmill for $0.1379/kWh

2)Green Energy - 100 percent renewable resources; predominately the use of biomass and landfill methane, but with a mix of hydroelectric, solar, and other. - $0.1309 /kWh

By comparison, BG&E's current "price to compare" is $.1088/kWh.

So what does that mean?

Lets assume you use approximately 1400 kWh/month. Comparing simply the electric portion (and ignoring the delivery fees, taxes, etc, etc, etc), we would get the following numbers.

1400 x $0.1088 = $152.32
1400 x $0.1379 = $193.06
1400 x $0.1309 = $183.26

So a difference of $31 or $41. Not completely insignificant, but by the same token the mocha-frappachino crowd easily spends that and more easily.

If you want to find your state and possible options - http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/buying/buying_power.shtml
has it broken out by state.

Also, you can look at http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/ for some discussions about how to crunch numbers and lower your overall electrical usage.

Not only has Rocky Mountain Power offered green power for years through the Blue Sky initiative, it's ranked second in the nation for the third consecutive year in the number of customers buying renewable power, and fourth for green power sales volume for 2006. The company has ranked in the top five in these categories for the past several years.

Utah also has two cities -- Moab and Park City -- that hold EPA Green Power designations.

We've bought all of our electricity through Blue Sky for years, paying an extra $1.95 per block of 100 kilowatt hours of usage.
addictive

June 2007

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