Buying Clean Electricity

Clean power is transmitted by the electricity grid, just like electricity from other power plants.
Photo credit: Warren Gretz.

The electricity industry is changing. At least 50% of customers have the option to purchase renewable electricity directly from their power supplier, and all customers have the option of purchasing renewable energy certificates. Such power is sometimes referred to as "green power" or "clean power."

In most states, you can buy clean power through one or more of the following programs:

• Green pricing

  Customers pay a small premium in exchange for electricity generated by clean energy sources.

• Competitive electricity markets

  Customers choose to have their electricity produced by an independent clean power generator, instead of buying it from the power provider assigned to their area.

• Green certificates

  Customers buy the environmental attributes of the electricity that a clean power generator is feeding into our nation's electricity grid.

Large-scale renewable energy power technologies include the following:

• Biomass
• Concentrating solar power
• Geothermal
• Hydropower
• Photovoltaics (Solar)
• Wind.

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