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Stumbled across something a while back about switching to clean energy. Looked into it, and found NJ Clean Energy. They have links to three clean energy providers in the state. We just signed up with one.
What happens is that we pay a couple extra cents per kilowatt-hour. There were a few options. We went with a wind/hydro (with a dash of solar) combo plan that costs 1.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. They also sell pure wind, but that's more expensive to produce here. Comes up to 5.5 cents, so they sell it in blocks. (You can either buy a certain number of 100-kwh blocks or just have them do 15% of your monthly usage.)
From our end of things, everything stays the same. Same wires, same meter, same power company sending us the bill and dealing with repair issues and whatnot. (Our power company's webpage even has a link to NJ Clean Energy, which is nice.) What changes is that, because of us, the power company is committed to buying a certain amount of power from the wind farm guys, which then gets added to the overall grid.
It's a good thing. The EPA has a little application called "power profiler". According to that, we're currently getting (from our local power company) 45.1% of our power from coal (and about 2% from hydro and other renewables). It's lower than the national average (49.6%), but still not great. In fact, our power usage is generating nearly 29,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, as well as nearly 200 pounds of sulfur dioxide and various other emissions. According to the EPA's greenhouse gas calculator, we'd need 2.9 acres of pine forest to offset the CO2 alone.
Starting next month, that changes. We pay a little more, but the power that we buy now effectively comes from clean, renewable sources. And there are similar programs in a number of other states.
The three NJ providers (all of whom also offer service in other states) are:
Community Energy, Sterling Planet, and Green Mountain Energy.
I'm sure there are other providers out there, too.
I have to say, it feels pretty good.
What happens is that we pay a couple extra cents per kilowatt-hour. There were a few options. We went with a wind/hydro (with a dash of solar) combo plan that costs 1.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. They also sell pure wind, but that's more expensive to produce here. Comes up to 5.5 cents, so they sell it in blocks. (You can either buy a certain number of 100-kwh blocks or just have them do 15% of your monthly usage.)
From our end of things, everything stays the same. Same wires, same meter, same power company sending us the bill and dealing with repair issues and whatnot. (Our power company's webpage even has a link to NJ Clean Energy, which is nice.) What changes is that, because of us, the power company is committed to buying a certain amount of power from the wind farm guys, which then gets added to the overall grid.
It's a good thing. The EPA has a little application called "power profiler". According to that, we're currently getting (from our local power company) 45.1% of our power from coal (and about 2% from hydro and other renewables). It's lower than the national average (49.6%), but still not great. In fact, our power usage is generating nearly 29,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, as well as nearly 200 pounds of sulfur dioxide and various other emissions. According to the EPA's greenhouse gas calculator, we'd need 2.9 acres of pine forest to offset the CO2 alone.
Starting next month, that changes. We pay a little more, but the power that we buy now effectively comes from clean, renewable sources. And there are similar programs in a number of other states.
The three NJ providers (all of whom also offer service in other states) are:
Community Energy, Sterling Planet, and Green Mountain Energy.
I'm sure there are other providers out there, too.
I have to say, it feels pretty good.