Good Stuff? - Electricity

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Green Power: An Electrifying Choice

Every time you turn on your lights, watch TV, or use a computer, you rely on natural resources to create your electricity. Most electricity comes from coal, nuclear, or other fossil fuel power plants. These plants contribute to a variety of environmental and health problems, including air emissions, water consumption, solid waste, and noise. In turn, they can affect the environment by altering the global climate, threatening biodiversity, producing toxic waste, and causing human health risks such as cancer and respiratory disease.

Renewable energy, or “green power,” is an alternative to traditional polluting electricity sources. Energy generated from wind, solar, geothermal, lowimpact hydropower, and biomass has low or no air emissions. Because these resources are renewable, they will never run out. Many consumers now have the option of purchasing green power either from their utility or from a competitive renewable energy marketer. Making the switch is easy: you don't need to buy any new equipment, and the quality of the electricity delivered to your home isn't affected. Buying green power directs your electricity funds to support renewable power plants that help create a cleaner, healthier environment for everyone.

World electricity demand is expected to double between 2000 and 2030, with the greatest increase occurring in the developing world and the most rapid growth in people's homes.

Electricity production is the leading cause of industrial air pollution in the United States, and is responsible for 40 percent of the nation's carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change.

At most, 35 percent of coal's energy in a power plant converts to electricity. The remaining two thirds is lost as waste heat, benefiting no one and often harming surrounding ecosystems.

Buying green power for the average U.S. home for one year saves as much carbon dioxide as planting nearly two acres (.8 hectares) of trees, removing a car from the road, or not driving nearly 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers).

In 1999, Santa Monica, California, became the first U.S. city to buy 100 percent of its municipal power from renewable sources, including geothermal and wind energy.

By 2020, solar power could provide energy to over a billion people globally and provide 2.3 million full-time jobs.

Wind power is now the world's fastestgrowing energy source. Global wind generation capacity has quadrupled over the past five years, and wind plants now power the equivalent of 7.5 million average U.S. homes —or 16 million average European homes.

Consumers from California to Kenya are installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on the rooftops of houses and businesses. In 2002, more than 40,000 Japanese homeowners added 140 megawatts of PV installations, thanks largely to supportive government policies.

Green power choice is now available to electricity customers in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

More than 400,000 household and commercial customers in the United States now buy green power, including businesses like Kinko's, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, as well as the University of Pennsylvania. Some states have passed laws establishing mandatory green power programs for all state utilities.

In 2001, the European Parliament voted to boost the share of renewable electricity production in the region to 22 percent of total electricity consumption by 2010. Germany produces about half the wind power generated in the European Union.

To minimize your electricity use, buy the most energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs available and turn off all lights and appliances when not in use.

To minimize your electricity use, buy the most energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs available and turn off all lights and appliances when not in use.

Switch your home to green power through your local utility or a green power marketer, or by buying Renewable Energy Credits, also known as Tradable Renewable Certificates or Green Tags.

Start a campaign at your university, place of worship, or business to switch to green power. Large businesses use larger amounts of electricity and thus can have a greater overall impact on the environment.

Find out if your green power is certified. Third party certification and verification ensures that this power meets widely accepted consumer and environmental standards, and that you get what you pay for—renewable electricity that contributes to cleaner air, soil, and water. Certifiers include Green-e in the United States, TerraChoice in Canada, and EUGENE in Europe. If your green power isn't certified, encourage your provider to gain certification so you can be sure you're receiving environmentally preferred electricity.

European Network for Green Electricity (EUGENE) (www.greenelectricitynetwork.org) is an independent, international, and credible labeling scheme for green electricity products.

Green-e Renewable Energy Certification Program (www.green-e.org) offers an easy way for U.S. consumers to quickly identify environmentally superior electricity products in their state.

GreenPrices (www.greenprices.com) lists green power options in Europe and shows consumers where to buy it, how much it costs, and how it is produced.

Green Power Network (www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower) provides news on green power markets and utility green pricing programs worldwide.

TerraChoice (www.environmentalchoice.com) certifies green power products for Environment Canada's Environmental Choice Program.

National Energy Efficiency Committee of Singapore (www.neec.gov.sg/ELS/sub_lscheme _world.shtm) provides links to green labels and energy labels from around the world.