PECO Wind: Greening the Grid and Watching The Wire

If I could afford it, I'd buy a big bank of solar panels for my home--oh about yesterday. I'd be so happy watching Battlestar Galactica using the glorious power pouring down on us from space 24/7. And if I had the money, building permits and spousal approval, I'd be installing an industrial-sized wind turbine in my yard. Hopefully, it would make a satisfying WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP sound as its monstrous blades slice the slightly less polluted air. But this is all an idle fantasy for now.

I'm stuck with the regular old power grid provided to me by PECO, the lovely gas and electric provider for southeastern Pennsylvania. That means coal and nuclear power plants are powering my DVD player and television while I watch Season 4 of the best TV show ever made, AKA The Wire. Daddy no like coal and he's pretty sure he no like nuclear. What to do?

Well it turns out there is something I (and probably you) can do. I simply signed up for PECO Wind, a service in which you can pay a little extra for the power company to buy units of energy from wind farms instead of the usual dirty power plants. In other words, the big power company generally sells you the cheapest energy it can get (they gotta make the benjamins), but it will serve up cleaner energy if you pay for it.

I pay $7-12 a month so that all of my electrical usage is covered by wind. The net result is that I'm helping to encourage the growth of green power and neutralizing the carbon footprint created by my home's electrical use. According to PECO's environmental benefits calculator, my purchase of wind power is preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of C02 from spewing into the atmosphere or the equivalent of planting 268 trees. As philosopher Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing.

Now this doesn't help you if you're not served by PECO. However, I have done some digging and come up with this possibly semi-comprehensive list of green utility programs running in America, courtesy of the Department of Energy. Please let me know if you know of a better resource. It wasn't easy coughing that one up.

PECO Wind
The Green Power Network (DOE)