If you are a residential energy consumer and are thinking about doing something good for the environment by a retrofit on your house or just choosing a green energy provider there are a few things to consider before taking the plunge in going green.
Know the Facts About Green Electricity in Houston
- Is the electric rate from clean renewables like wind and solar?
- Does your green energy company sell power that comes from coal and nuclear plants?
- Is the Green Energy created in the state of Texas or a credit from outside the state?
Many times the clean renewable energy you buy from a green electricity company is not exactly the green energy you may think it is. You pay a high premium for the green energy but you are not always getting what you pay for. The contradiction isn’t easily solved because right now the cost of wind and solar is very expensive compared to natural gas and coal generated power. The lines and infrastructure to pipe the wind and solar energy into the ERCOT grid system into cities like Dallas and Houston Texas is not ready yet. The Pickens plan addressed this issue and this Texas investor who owns a large stake in natural gas wanted to have assistance by the state of Texas in getting a pipeline from the wind turbines he is erecting to the large metropolitan areas like Houston and Dallas.
What is an REC?
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), also known as Green tags, Renewable Energy Credits, or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are tradable environmental commodities in the United States which show evidence that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electric power was renewable and generated from a renewable energy source. This renewable energy source didn’t necessarily come from your state.
These certificates can be sold and traded and the owner of the REC can claim to have purchased Texas renewable energy even though it was created outside the state. While traditional carbon emissions trading programs promote low-carbon technologies by increasing the cost of emitting carbon, RECs can incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources. The most important point in regards to an REC is that the energy is used by someone other then the purchaser elsewhere, likely in a totally different state. The energy consumer of an REC related Texas electricity product receives only a certificate and this certificate is generally held by the energy provider selling you the renewable energy. Even though you bought a renewable energy product you are receiving coal and natural gas power to your residence in the state of Texas.
In states which have a REC program, a green energy provider (such as a wind farm) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh of electricity it produces (for reference, an average residential customer consumes about 800 kWh in a month). A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it doesn’t get double-counted. The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid (by mandate), and the accompanying REC can then be sold on the open market.
Until the grid is setup correctly your green electricity plans are really a mixture of virtual green energy credits called REC’s. You are not actually getting green electricity pumped through on the electric lines to your house but are buying this green energy via a paper transaction. Based on your area in Texas most of the energy sent through the powerlines to your house is a mixture of coal and natural gas created electricity. The green energy plans available in Texas are a start in the right direction but they may not be exactly what you thought they were.
