- Category:
Energy Choice - Published:
October 24, 2011 - Updated:
July 6, 2021
What does it mean to choose a green electricity plan?
Renewable wind power is generated by wind turbines, located within specific control areas.
“Going green” has become more than a trend over the past few years. Residents and businesses all over the country have made a more concerted effort to help the environment by matching a percentage of their electricity use with renewable energy.
But when you sign up for a green electricity plan, what actually happens?
Renewable energy, also known as green power, generally refers to electricity generated by resources that replenish themselves naturally, such as the sun, wind, earth, and water. Although the exact definition of “renewable” fuels varies depending on the governing program, law or regulations, they typically include solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and geothermal.
We supply our residential customers in select electric distribution company service areas with renewable wind energy. This renewable wind power is generated by wind turbines, located on wind farms located within control areas specific to you (to get an idea about our wind farms are located, go to http://pjm.com/about-pjm/how-we-operate/territory-served.aspx).
Once the wind power is generated, it is then delivered to the electric grid. When these electrons are on the grid, it’s impossible to tell which electrons were generated from non-renewable or renewable sources. In order to ensure that the amount of renewable electricity generated matches the amount of renewable energy sold, there’s an online system that tracks renewable energy generation.
The average U.S. household uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. While this isn’t even close to the amount of electricity that a large manufacturing company might use, every residential customer that chooses renewable energy makes an impact.
As the old adage goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Every purchase of renewable energy helps support renewable electricity production and development in the local power grid. The purchase also may have other local and global environmental benefits such as reducing global climate change and regional air pollution.
