NSTAR: NSTAR Green
➠ September 2, 2007
NSTAR: NSTAR Green
Starting in January, our leccy company will be selling wind-generated electricity for $0.03 more per kWh — an approximately 15% premium. I’ll be signing up for that — makes more sense to me than carbon credits.
Comments
About 4 years, 5 months ago, Your Father commented:
Pardon my scepticism - but why add 15% to the profits of the generating company? Are they adding a dye to your electricity so that you know the stuff they are pumping into your circuits is green?
Carbon is an element - i.e. it can be neither created nor destroyed - i.e. the amount of carbon on and around the planet remains constant
About 4 years, 5 months ago, Your Father commented:
...admittedly some carbon compounds - e.g. c2H5OH are more fun than others!
About 4 years, 5 months ago, Rod commented:
> Pardon my scepticism - but why add 15% to the profits of
> the generating company? Are they adding a dye to your
> electricity so that you know the stuff they are pumping
> into your circuits is green?
Currently, my generating/distributing company (NStar) is purely coal-based. This scheme would seem them buying in power generated from wind-farms. My paying them a premium is an effort to encourage the market to generate more power through renewable sources. If people are willing to pay the premium, then it will encourage companies to build more wind-farms, as it will give them greater profits.
This is not dissimilar, albeit marginally less abstract, than my current process of paying a third party for carbon "credits", which gives benefits to companies who have cut their carbon emissions.
> Carbon is an element - i.e. it can be neither created
> nor destroyed - i.e. the amount of carbon on and around
> the planet remains constant
Understood. However, the longer the carbon remains attached to heavier elements in the ground, rather than being released into the atmosphere, the better.
About 4 years, 5 months ago, Rod commented:
Disclaimer: I spent most of my chemistry classes at high school setting fire to things on a tripod with a bunsen burner, so my knowledge of elements is somewhat non-existent.
Dropping sodium in water was cool, though.
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About 4 years, 5 months ago, dave commented:
Watch out it's not a scam. Most such schemes in the UK are simply reselling green energy that they are already required by law to generate.
Here's a quickly googled link that claims the same shenanigans go on in the US too:
http://maize-energy.blogspot.com/2007...