Posted on September 25, 2009 - by Janet Smith

Demystifying Green Power: Benefits of Clean Energy are Available to All

Green Power, like telephones has evolved.

In the early days, you had to be connected to the phone line.

Or you had to go to the phone.

There were little options, and all involved the caller to be physically located at the telephone.

Now phones can be used by anyone

Anywhere….

…And so can Green Power.

The EPA had to think out of the box, and came up with this cool way to have the benefits of clean energy available to everyone everywhere just like a cell phone. And it promotes MORE renewable energy to be built.

The problem is, wind is wind, and sunshine is sunshine. The wind blows where and when the wind blows, and the sun too. It doesn’t make sense to put a very expensive solar field in a region of the country that gets significant rain and snow half the year.  So the EPA and the Public Utility Commission worked it out, that when you buy green power, supporting the building of more renewable energy, the PUC makes sure the lights stay on regardless of the wind or sun, because they balance all the power suppliers with your demand.  The lights stay on.

Green Power is available to every American, those who live in a site physically connected to a renewable energy source like wind, solar, biomass or hydro, or by being unconnected, like a cellphone.

The EPA created a receipt: for every one megawatt of clean energy produced, an environmental benefit is created. The receipt, called a renewable energy certificate (REC) is used ONCE and then retired.  This process is tightly monitored and verified because states require businesses like factories or power companies to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Without a system, how could a company be held responsible to reduce CO2 (another name is carbon footprint) when the wind farms and solar fields are 1,000 miles away?

This system allows those required to ‘make good’ for their CO2 emissions with clean energy purchases. RECs allow those who volunteer, like businesses and consumers, to utilize clean energy regardless of their location.  Each megawatt-hour of clean energy produced avoids ~1,400 pounds of CO2 emissions. For comparison, the average U.S. home is responsible for 1,917 pounds of CO2 emissions per month.

Some companies who volunteer to use clean energy and emit less carbon dioxide in the air are Intel, Pepsico, Cisco, U.S. Air Force, Penn State, IBM, Apple and Staples. Check your local utility company, you may have the ability to buy green power for your home too.

Renewable Energy has evolved. 

Here’s the technical stuff, an excerpt from REMA, Renewable Energy Marketing Association September 23, 2009 press release:

Currently one million organizations, households, government agencies, farms, businesses, and houses of worship voluntarily purchase green power—renewable electricity or renewable energy certificates (RECs) — or install on-site renewable electricity generation like solar as part of their voluntary commitment to reducing their electricity related global warming footprint and to help develop nationwide renewable energy capacity that exceeds what mandatory markets contribute alone. According to the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory retail sales of renewable energy in voluntary purchase markets totaled 24 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2008, or 0.6% of total U.S. electricity sales. Green power sales (in kWh) increased by 34% in 2008, with annual growth rates averaging 32% since 2004. Estimates from NREL and the Union of Concerned Scientists also show that voluntary renewable energy demand is slightly greater than the current combined state Renewable Energy Standard (RES) requirements for new renewable generation.