by Jonathan Rich in Environment and Open Space - Posted on December 7, 2008 at 12:12 pm
If you buy your electrical power from NStar and can afford an additional 1.389 cents per kilowatt hour, you can sign up for the “NStar Green” program, which promotes the development of wind energy as an alternative power source.
According to their web site “Wind power will be generated at Maple Ridge Wind Farm in upstate New York [http://www.mapleridgewind.com/], before traveling into the New England power grid.”
Check it out at : http://www.nstar.com/residential/customer_information/nstar_green/nstar_green.asp. The site is a little vague about exactly how the added price is used, but if existing wind farms get lots of business, it seems more likely that more of them will get built.
Jon, thanks for spreading the word about this exciting program. The rate you quoted applies to the part of your electric bill called “Basic Svc Fixed” and NSTAR Green actually offers two options : 50% of electricity supporting wind power for an additional 0.837 cents per kWh or 100% for an additional 1.396 cents per kWh.
Now these are just two different rates, but it’s not clear how they relate to the percentages of 50% and 100%. I think that’s just marketing thrown in to make the options simpler for customers.
I’ll share my own numbers as an example: Last month (Nov), my electric usage was 230 kWh.
At the current basic rate of 12.547 cents/kWh, I paid $28.86.
At the 50% level, I would pay 13.384 cents/kWh for a total of $30.78 or $1.92 more than basic service.
At the 100% level, I would pay 13.943 cents/kWh for a total of $32.07 or $3.21 more than basic service.
Now, 230 kWh is near the peak of what we use all year and it probably has something to do with our new electric space heaters. So, paying an extra $2-3 dollars per month for the peace of mind of knowing we’d be supporting wind energy sounds very reasonable and attractive.
However, these rates expire at the end of 2008, but NSTAR just released its Green rates for Jan 1-Jun 30, 2009: 50% for 13.544 cents/kWh and 100% for 14.103 cents/kWh. But also, the base rate for basic fixed residential rates went up starting Jan 1st to 12.707 cents per kWh. So, how does this affect the numbers for 230 kWh?
At the basic rate of 12.707 cents/kWh, I would pay $29.23.
At the 50% level, I would pay 13.544 cents/kWh for a total of $31.15 or $1.92 more.
At the 100% level, I would pay 14.103 cents/kWh for a total of $32.44 or $3.21 more.
So, although the rates will go up next year across the board, the incremental cost of switching to the NSTAR Green program will cost the same. The fact that the incremental cost will not rise means that it is actually cheaper given the declining value of the dollar.
So if you share the vision of a green economy running on clean, renewable energy and you can afford a couple extra dollars on your electric bill, then join me in switching to NSTAR Green. And as the program description says “There is no term commitment for NSTAR Green and customers can return to Basic Service at any time.” Check it out now.
My main question about this program is how much of a Greenwash it is. Do they need to supply a certain amount of wind energy under state regs anyway? Is this just a way of getting extra money out of people who want to do the right thing?
I have overcome my skepticism to sign up anyway, because it might actually make a difference.
Wind power is not a solution.
The whole truth about wind turbines is never told by lobbyists and governments.
How could the very weak and extremely unreliable initial energy source of a wind turbine ever produce a steady power of any significance?
Please think!
And read: “Wind energy- the whole truth” at: http://www.windenergy-the-truth.com/
And to show how completely irrelevant wind power is in regard to the worldwide energy and climate crisis visit the following link: http://www.bp.com/iframe.do?categoryId=9024179&contentId=7044895
And play around with the charts you see there (The BP charts regarding energy reserves and energy consumption worldwide over the last 20 to 40 years.) and make some calculations. And if you don´t get confused with the zeros, you will get my point.
The resources now poured into futile, but very ingenious and high-tech windmills, could be far better used for, for example:
1) Burning coal in a cleaner way,
2) Efficiency of energy use in the broadest sense of the word
3) Promoting a drastic change of life style (There are about 6.5 billion people, who all have the right to have some energy to their disposal).
Just 3 ideas.
Alexander
Given that there are active, privately capitalized, commercial wind energy farms in several locations in the country, selling electrical power and making money at it, I am extremely skeptical of “Alexander’s” assertion that it can’t be done. Furthermore, I am disinclined to give a lot of credence to research on the subject funded by British Petroleum. As for his proposed solutions: for practical purposes there is no such thing as “clean” coal. There is some unbelievably expensive technology that can take the carbon dioxide generated burning coal and sort of stuff it back underground, but my understanding is that it is not a commercially viable process at present. I’m right with him on the other solutions, however, to the extent that we can make them happen.
While not every location may be usable for wind power, there are suitable locations and installations that clearly work and produce power (contrary to what Alexander says), both locally and to the electric grid in general. A local example would be the Town of Hull. If Cape Wind ever gets built, I think it will be a model example, even if they only get half of the predicted output power. It is unfortunate that the economic climate and recent fossil fuel price declines have put a major dent into what had begun to be a promising growth spurt for alternative energy sources. I still think we can do a lot more on the conservation front, but don’t want to invest even a single additional dollar into the development of fossil fuel resources (and to help foster that approach, I switched to NStar Green 100%).