The following video has been contributed by the folks over at Greentime. These are two local residents, Rhett Aultman & Amy Hale that have undertaken learning to live more sustainably. At the same time, they are sharing these experiences on their video blog. We’re going to republish their weekly videos here on greenerMIAMI for a bit. Let us know what you think!
Here’s Episode 12: Renewable Energy Credits and Carbon Offsets. If you’d like to watch their previous episodes, make sure to visit their website, Greentime.
3 Responses to “Greentime Covers Renewable Energy Credits & Carbon Offsets”
Very thorough. The description of RECs (commonly pronounced “wreaks”) was well done. I was wondering about the cats there for a bit.
Probably would have been better to tackle each issue separately.
As to the FPL program – it’s not bad as long as you know what you’re getting. The cost of 1 cent per kWh is about what you’d pay retail for wind power through a green purchasing program, and since FPL isn’t paying retail (and they admit that a good chunk of the RECs they buy are from energy generated from landfills and biomass), they have promised to use the remaining funds to build 150 kW of solar for every 10,000 subscribers. They are over the 20,000 mark now.
Also keep in mind that it’s not the average energy consumer that has created the market for RECs. It really took hold when States started adopting Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Now major corporations have latched on to RECs as a marketing tool for greening their corporate image. Whole Foods went 100% followed about a month or two ago by PepsiCo.
Keep that Renewable Portfolio Standard in mind when Florida debates an energy bill next year. The Governor has already made a 20% renewable goal part of his plan. We would be the only State in the Southeast to have one and such a standard would open all kinds of investment opportunities in Florida for clean energy.
Oh and to put in a plug for the FPL program, you can go to:
http://www.fplsunshineenergy.com/
Mr. Sunshine,
Thanks so much for our first-ever comment on our greenerMIAMI rebroadcasts.
You’re absolutely right. In retrospect, it might have been better to cover each issue separately. Our interest in putting them in a common video was to compare and contrast them as well as to explain our story about how we came to NativeEnergy through learning about the bookkeeping of RECs and asking questions about the accountability of offsets. The thing that’s often frustrating about video is that so much ends up getting cut. The raw footage was 2-3 times as long, and a lot of otherwise good stuff got cut just because we didn’t think people would want to see two big and technical lectures in a row.
Thanks also for the extra information on FPL and for that additional information about RPS. It’s very true that people need to lobby for RPS here in Florida. At Greentime, we tend to focus on “the greener apartment”, but the real power for change comes from getting industry on board.