I'm now buying 100% renewable energy. It comes from Stream Energy.
As a Maryland resident who lives in the service area of Baltimore Gas & Electric, I have the option to stay with BGE's Standard Offer Service (SOS) or to choose from a list of alternate suppliers of electric power. This is due to the fact that Maryland deregulated its electricity market a few years ago, seeking to foster competition that would hold prices down.
I have used two non-BGE suppliers other than Stream Energy, but the "6 Month Fixed Rate Plan - Green and Clean!" contract I now have with Stream Energy is the first that promises its power is "100% Renewable." Stream Energy, along with it's marketing affiliate Ignite, is a Texas company that began selling electric power in Maryland earlier in 2011.
What is "Renewable" Energy and How Much Does It Cost?
Stream Energy's renewable energy, the company says, "comes from a combination of the following sources; solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind power, low-impact hydropower, geothermal energy, biologically derived methane gas, fuel cells, biomass energy, coal mine methane, large scale hydropower, waste coal, distributed generation systems, demand-side management, municipal solid waste, generation of electricity utilizing by-products of the pulping process and wood, integrated combined coal gasification technology."
Am I paying a lot more for using 100% renewable energy? Not really. Right now, BGE's SOS electricity charge is 9.037 ¢/kWH, while Stream Energy is charging me 9.39 ¢/kWH. That's 0.351 ¢/kWH more. I used 1713 kWH of electric power on my current monthly bill, meaning my "electric supplier charges" to Stream Energy amounted to $160.85. Had I stayed with BGE, they would have amounted to $154.80. So my "100% renewable surcharge" came to just $6.05.
Buying Renewable Power
Stream Energy serves customers in Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, in addition to its home state of Texas. Chances are, though, that you live in a state Stream Energy doesn't serve.
You may nonetheless live in a state that offers you a choice of electric suppliers, as Maryland does. Some of those suppliers may offer plans that use renewable power sources.
Maryland's deregulated electricity market program is called Electric Choice, and you may have a similar deregulation program in the state where you live. Otherwise, you are locked into a single supplier. Even if you are locked into one supplier, though, it may offer you a range of plans to select from. If so, one or more of its plans may offer some percentage (up to 100%) of its electric power from renewable sources — or, even better, from wind alone.
In general, the more power from renewables, the higher the rate per kilowatt-hour (kWH) will be. If all the renewable power comes from harnessing the wind, the rate per kWH can be expected to be yet higher.
If your state is like mine, signing up with an alternate supplier of electric power is pretty much painless. You can expect to find a list of suppliers that is published online by your state public utility commission (mine is actually a "public service commission"). From the list, you can pick one that suits your needs and visit its website. The website will allow you to sign up, but you may have to confirm your intention to do so over the phone.
Once that happens, you will receive various confirmations in the mail. At the start of the next billing period, the actual switchover will occur. Your next bill after the switchover will come, as usual, from your local electric supplier (in my case, BGE) but it will have a special "electric supplier charges" section somewhere on it. In that section you will see the charges per kWH that will be forwarded to the new power supplier (in my case, Stream Energy). The remaining charges on the bill will go to the local company (e.g., BGE) mainly for "electric delivery service" — the transmission of the electric power from the power grid to your home.
Stream Energy, like most electric power suppliers, offers plans such as the one I am on that impose a fee for early cancellation. I have a six-month plan, so if I were to cancel prior to the end of six months, I'd owe Stream Energy an extra $150. For a slightly higher monthly rate, I could have selected a "month to month" Stream Energy plan instead: 9.9 ¢/kWH for 100% renewable power. Doing so would allow me to switch suppliers at virtually any time, with no penalty.
100% Wind Power
Right at the moment, I have the option to buy "100% Wind" power from BGE Home for 10.2 ¢/kWH. Not to be confused with BGE, BGE Home is a local subsidiary of Constellation Electric, its national parent company. "100% Wind" means all the power comes from wind turbine "farms" like this one:
There are other suppliers presently selling "100% Wind" plans for as low as 9.7 ¢/kWH (the rate quoted by Ambit Northeast right now).
Wind power is, of course, fully renewable. The wind is always blowing somewhere. Wind farms are located where it pretty much blows all the time.
Just 21 months ago, before I began shopping around for a non-BGE electric supplier, I was paying BGE 11.97 ¢/kWH for electric power. Since then, rates have come down a lot for non-renewable and renewable power, but still ... for 2.27 ¢/kWH less than I was paying then, I could be getting electric power that reaps nothing but the wind.
In fact, when my current six-month contract with Stream Energy ends, I expect to go with one of the "100% Wind" suppliers. It will be a nice feeling to know that every time my heating/air conditioning starts blowing air through my house, it will derive from nothing but the winds that blow across America.
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