Monday, December 13, 2004

Power Your Way

Reading a piece about the Brooklyn Brewery, I was reminded of why they're such a great company and that in turn reminded me of something I've been meaning to do. Besides producing a great product - including a new Sustainable Porter which is listed at Beer Advocate but not yet on their website - their plant in Williamsburg is 100% powered by wind. All the more reason to support them, but how do they pull that off exactly? It's simple - they choose to purchase their electricity from a company call NewWind Energy.

And you can do it too. Regardless of what you think of the deregulation of the electric industry (and the results are decidedly mixed), one of the major benefits is the ability to choose to support a company with a more forward-thinking approach to generating power. For those of us who have been at the mercy of ConEd's pollution-prone kilowatt factories, you can now choose Green Power through ConEd Solutions. Your electricity will be produced by 25% wind power from NewWind and 75% run-of-the-river hydroelectric* meaning you will be contributing virtually zero pollution into the air and water. And the best part is that switching will only cost you one half-cent more per kilowatt-hour of electricity that you use, meaning you're unlikely to see much more than a couple dollar increase in your total electric bill (this is much lower than in other areas). And they're offering a $25 rebate that will appear on your third month billing period that will offset whatever increases there might be. So grab your ConEd bill, take 5 minutes and make the switch to cleaner power. And if you're not in the ConEd service area, you can check out NewWind's availability in your area or check out the Department of Energy's listings of Green Power providers in each state.

* from their FAQ: Run-of-river hydropower uses the natural flow of the river to produce electricity. Run-of-river hydropower typically creates no air pollution and is seen to be more environmentally friendly than large-scale hydropower that typically requires the construction of an impounding dam. Our GREEN Power uses hydropower from small, run-of-the-river facilities located in upstate New York.

4 Comments:

Blogger Mondale said...

Holy Crap! If what you say is accurate(and i just checked some links, it's looking good)then my favourite energy source could actually start heating my home, running my TV and keeping my beer cool.
Result!

December 14, 2004 at 9:33 AM  
Blogger Wisdom Weasel said...

Jamie, don't let Bowlesy get started on the Queen of the Broads wind turbine...

December 14, 2004 at 11:26 AM  
Blogger mas said...

What a cool idea - I generally throw out all of the fluff Con Ed puts in with the bill without even glancing at it but will keep an eye out for this. Thanks.

December 14, 2004 at 8:16 PM  
Blogger Listmaker said...

i was all gung ho to sign up for this, but then i heard that it might not actually be a good thing. now i'm all confused. somebody with info help!

January 19, 2005 at 3:21 PM  

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