Whether all renewables are the same depends on why one is interested in signing up for renewable power. If the reason is that you want to mitigate climate change, by reducing reliance on fossil fuels in how we produce electricity, it very much makes a difference which of these electricity supply programs you sign up for. If you do not buy what that website calls premium renewables - meaning a program based on Class 1 Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs - the worldwide emissions of global warming gases will NOT be reduced by what you did. If instead your program buys Class 1 RECs (as the Lincoln Green Energy Choice program does), then the worldwide emissions of global warming gases WILL be reduced by what you did. That's a big difference!
The good question posed by Sara is, why is that so? The excellent people at Green Energy Consumer Alliance have a thorough explanation at https://www.greenenergyconsumers.org/greenpowered/faqs. MCAN's version is at https://www.massclimateaction.org/recs. Following is my attempt. The first important fact is that whatever electric supply program you sign up for - even if 100% of it is associated with wind, solar, and/or hydro power - you are not getting electrons flowing directly to you from wind, solar, or hydro projects, because that's just not possible. Instead, all of the electricity fed into the New England electricity grid, from both renewable and non-renewable sources, effectively mixes together before it is parcelled out to individual electricity consumers. It's as if multiple streams fed into one lake and then we each got water by dipping into that lake at different places. The second important fact is that our state legislature has created the so-called Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS. The RPS requires the in-state investor-owned utilities, Eversource and National Grid, to obtain a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, and a certain (smaller) percentage specifically from Class 1 renewable sources. Class 1 includes only certain types of renewable sources that were brought online since 1997. For 2023, the RPS requires 21% Class 1 RECs, and that amount goes up a few % each year, which forces a gradual increase in what share of the electricity on the New England grid comes from renewable energy. That RPS rate of increase is much too slow for stemming the climate crisis. However, the RPS gives us a lever we can push to speed the transition to an electric grid less based on the climate-destroying practice of burning fossil fuels. The way that lever works is that when one buys more Class 1 RECs, the suppliers subject to the RPS have to get more Class 1 RECs from somewhere, which means more renewable projects have to get built sooner, and our grid gets greener faster. The Green Energy Consumer Alliance website sums it up this way: "In other words, choosing Class I RECs ensures that more renewable energy is brought onto the grid above and beyond what is required by law. Non-Class I REC purchases do not incentivize new projects. Purchasing RECs from Non-Class I projects does not push us forward, as these projects would have been built whether or not someone buys the RECs....However, even though they are worth only a fraction of a penny, non-Class I RECs are sold because… why not? When utilities don’t buy them, many “green” competitive suppliers, like Viridian or North American Power, will purchase and re-sell these RECs to New Englanders as a miracle renewable energy product that is cheaper than normal electricity. This is greenwashing. If you live in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, purchasing a REC from a huge farm in Texas, for example, is not shifting our grid away from fossil fuels, and it is not shifting Texas’s grid away from fossil fuels. It does absolutely nothing." One step in the GECA logic above is that buying typical Texas RECs (for example) does not actually get more wind farms built any faster in Texas. That might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but I have had several independent experts all tell me the same thing, so I believe it. Therefore, I remain a big believer in buying only Class 1 RECs, if you are trying to help. You can do that by participating in the Lincoln Green Energy Choice program. People who do not have access to our program can contact the Green Energy Consumer Alliance directly for ways they can buy Class 1 RECs. Then feel good about doing some good. - Paul Shorb On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 10:23 PM Sara Mattes <[email protected]> wrote: > All, > I am still confused as to the diff. btw “premium” and any other renewable. > Isn’t renewable renewable? > Solar, wind, hydro? > Why aren’t all renewables the same? > Sara > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 5, 2022, at 10:12 PM, Paul Shorb <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Ed - > I looked at the companies listed on that webpage and couldn't find any > that claimed to provide all "premium" renewable resources (i.e., Class 1 > RECs). Can you find any? > > - Paul > > On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 7:33 PM Edward Young via Lincoln < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> The 21 alternative electrical contracts currently listed on the Mass.gov >> site (see below) as being available to households in our zipcode continue >> to reflect uncertainty as to where prices for electricity are headed. >> >> https://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/compare/2/1/01773// >> >> You can still get 12-month or 36-month contracts at 19.8 or 20.0 cents >> per kwh from companies 100% of whose sources qualify as clean/renewable, as >> defined by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. Other bids >> range as high as 32.0 cents/kwh. >> You are free to choose which of these rates you want in the Mass.gov open >> market. >> >> When choosing, to be sure, you need to pick a time period to lock in, >> which may prove to be advantageous or disadvantageous in hindsight. For >> example, people who selected a 33 month 100% renewable contract earlier >> this year are no doubt pleased to be locked into a 12.9 cent/kwh price >> through the end of 2024. But things might have turned out differently. >> >> You must also read the fine print. For example, some contracts have fees >> for early cancellation and others may switch you into a floating price if >> you forget to take action when your contract expires. The website also >> advises you how much of a supplier’s sources are “premium” sources as >> defined by the DPU and as further explained in detail in various earlier >> posts on Lincoln Talks from the Lincoln Green Energy Committee. >> >> >> >> >> -- >> The LincolnTalk mailing list. >> To post, send mail to [email protected]. >> Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. >> Browse the archives at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. >> Change your subscription settings at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. >> >> -- > The LincolnTalk mailing list. > To post, send mail to [email protected]. > Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. > Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/ > . > Change your subscription settings at > https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. > >
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