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Choosing less-polluting electricity is easy—and less expensive than you might think.
You can sign up on our Web site or over the phone—it just takes a few minutes. For as little as $1.95 more per month than
you’re paying now, you can:
- help preserve our environment
- conserve resources for the future
- improve air quality
- encourage more renewable power development
What are my renewable energy options?
Options vary by state. Select the state you live in for specific information about the options available to you including
prices, fuel source and detailed Q&As
.
What is renewable energy?
Electricity produced from sources that replenish themselves naturally such as wind, sunlight (solar), heat of the earth (geothermal),
and even methane from dairy cows and landfills (biomass) instead of burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
These renewable sources of electricity have less impact on the environment than traditional methods of electricity production.
Natural gas and coal, for example, are not renewables because their use consumes gas and coal reserves at a much quicker rate
than they can be replenished.
Why does renewable power cost more?
Although renewable power sources like sunlight and wind are "free," the technology used to capture the energy they produce
is still more expensive than traditional power generation methods that use coal or natural gas. In addition to the costs associated
with building the renewable power generating facilities, huge investments in transmission lines to effectively export the
power are also needed.
Increased customer demand is leading to expanded renewable power production and eventually to lower costs. For example, the cost of wind power has dropped by about 80 percent over
the last 20 years, and projections indicate that the price will continue to drop as wind turbines are made more efficient
and manufacturing costs decline.
Lower prices for wind energy will enable us to include a larger percentage of renewable power in our overall power mix.
How do I know I’m getting what I pay for?
These renewable power options are regulated by the state Public Utility Commissions, which require us to provide a detailed
accounting of consumer renewable power purchases and our correlating renewable purchases on their behalf.
Rest assured that while the electricity our customers use doesn’t flow from a specific facility directly to residents’ homes,
each participating customer’s voluntary renewable electricity purchase is matched annually with electricity generated from
wind, biomass and solar sources delivered to the northwest power grid.
In addition, all our products meet Renew 2000 quality environmental standards. Renew 2000 is a third-party organization formed
to ensure consumers get what they’re paying for when they buy renewable power.
More questions?
We’ve provided a comprehensive Q&A
for our customers, in addition to the state-specific information available for customers in Oregon
,
Washington, California and Wyoming
.
Separately, we have information available on photovoltaic power generation
, for customers interested in learning more about converting sunlight into electrical energy, as well as information about net metering
.
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