You don’t need to have solar panels on your roof in order to have renewable electricity. Switching to renewable electricity is an important way to cut your carbon footprint. It also sends a message to the utilities that renewable electricity matters to you. As more people do this, your utility and its shareholders will start to understand that climate breakdown matters to a growing number of the customers in their service area and that it is no longer business as usual when it comes to generating electricity.
“Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for its zero emissions profile and carbon footprint reduction benefits.” To read more: https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/what-green-power
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)
The cornerstone to understanding green or renewable electricity starts with understanding what a renewable energy credit (rec) is. See this video from the U.S. Department of Energy epa for a three minute explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12VYXms6-c
You don’t need to have solar panels on your roof in order to have renewable electricity. Switching to renewable electricity is an important way to cut your carbon footprint. It also sends a message to the utilities that renewable electricity matters to you. As more people do this, your utility and its shareholders will start to understand that climate breakdown matters to a growing number of the customers in their service area and that it is no longer business as usual when it comes to generating electricity.
“Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for its zero emissions profile and carbon footprint reduction benefits.” To read more: https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/what-green-power
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)
The cornerstone to understanding green or renewable electricity starts with understanding what a renewable energy credit (rec) is. See this video from the U.S. Department of Energy epa for a three minute explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12VYXms6-c
Connecticut
Energize Connecticut https://www.energizect.com/ “is an initiative of the Energy Efficiency Fund, the Connecticut Green Bank, the State and your local electric and gas utilities with funding from a charge on customer energy bills.” You may compare electric suppliers by going to the tab “Your Electric Supplier Rates” and selecting “Compare Rates on CTs Rate Board and Find Suppliers.” https://www.energizect.com/compare-energy-suppliers Choose your utility, type of account (residential) and select “compare now.” Please note: all offerings have a minimum of 27.5% renewable energy as mandated by the state. However, you can choose up to 100 percent renewable energy. In order to sort to see the 100 percent renewable offerings first, go to the top of the “renewable energy” column and click on the arrow. It will reverse the order and show the 100 percent renewable energy offerings first. (The drop-down menu for renewable energy to the right did not work when I tried it.)
Illinois
"Plug in Illinois" https://www.pluginillinois.org/default.aspx is an Illinois Commerce Commission website that answers questions about the state’s power market and what to consider when changing your electric supplier. The site provides a list of electric suppliers that have been certified by the Commerce Commission and registered with your utility to serve customers. The “Compare Offers Now” tab allows you to search for offers in your area. Be aware, the results list shows both renewable and non-renewable offers together so read carefully.
Massachusetts
Energy Switch Massachusetts http://www.energyswitchma.gov/ is a website run by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides information about the deregulated energy market in the state. The following link is to a quick-start guide on how to use the website: http://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/faq/websitefaq Click on the “Go Shopping” tab at the top of the page, enter your zip code and get a list of offers from electrical suppliers. Sort the list by “Renewable Energy Content: High to Low” to see the suppliers providing 100 percent renewable energy first. Note: every electric supplier must provide at least 25 percent renewable energy by law.
New Jersey
NJ Power Switch https://nj.gov/njpowerswitch/ is a New Jersey state website that provides information about how to shop for electric suppliers. Go to the “Licensed Third Party Suppliers” tab to see a list of electric suppliers in you area.
Unfortunately, you have to look at each individual supplier to see if they have a renewable offering. One short-cut, to finding a list of renewable energy providers is to go to New York State’s Power to Choose website http://documents.dps.ny.gov/PTC/home/homeplug in a zip code in New York State, for example 10081 in New York City, and from that list select, on the left hand side of the screen, “Green Offer” as well as the percentage of green power you want and refine the results. You can take the names from that list and look for offerings from those providers on the NJ Power Switch list. Be careful to make certain that the offering is for renewable electricity and check the terms of the offering carefully since it may very well differ from the New York State offering.
New York State
The New York State Public Service Commission website provides information about New York State’s Green Power Program, as well as general information about the state’s competitive electricity market. On the left-hand side of the page, under “Featured Pages,” is a “Power to Choose” link that will take you to a page where you can search for green power options by entering your zip code in a column on the left-hand side. You also need to select “Green Offer” as well as the percentage of green power you want. There are fields where you can select to see contracts with or without cancellation fees and the length of the power contract and whether it is fixed or variable rate. When you select filter the site will give you a list of options and you can compare the price on offer to the price from your incumbent utility. (The price your incumbent utility is currently charging is at the top of the list.)
http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/askpsc.nsf/All/95CBE2FC26DDBDC585257FA2006DFB27?OpenDocument
Community Solar in New York State
New York State has launched a community solar initiative which allows you to get the benefits of solar power without having to install panels on your roof. There may be solar projects in your electric area that you can join. Some of them may actually save you money on the supply portion of your electric bill. This link explains the program. From that page, you can click on “community solar project in your area” to find a solar farm near you.
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/NY-Sun/Solar-for-Your-Home/Community-Solar
Ohio
Energy Choice Ohio http://energychoice.ohio.gov is an Ohio state government website that provides information about how to shop for electric suppliers and what you should consider when changing supplier. Go to http://energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesCategory.aspx?Category=Electric# to find a list of electric suppliers in your service area. You can filter the list by the amount of renewable electricity you want on the left-hand side of the results page and choosing “filter.”
Pennsylvania
This is the link to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s website for shopping for electricity. Search the site by zip code and you will receive a list of electric suppliers that you can choose from. Below the name of the supplier is information about whether the offer is for renewable electricity and the percentage of the electricity that is renewable. When you view the list, you can limit the search results exclusively to renewable energy offers by going to the left hand side of the results page, towards the bottom of the page, under “special programs” are the options to limit the results to view just renewable energy offers.
Rhode Island
Empower RI https://www.ri.gov/app/dpuc/empowerri/rate_card
is a Rhode Island state government website that provides information about how to shop for electric suppliers and the types of questions you should consider when changing supplier. See what electrical suppliers are available to you. Select “% Renewable High to Low” to see the most carbon free offers first.
Texas
Power To Choose http://www.powertochoose.org is a website run by the Utility Commission of Texas. The site provides information about how to shop for electric suppliers and the types of questions you should consider when changing supplier. Enter your zip code to see offers that are available to you. You can sort on the left-hand side of the results list to see just the suppliers that offer the percentage of renewable electricity you are interested in purchasing by choosing the percentage and clicking on “refresh.”
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