Green Power

This morning I went to the PGE website to sign up for some green power. While there I found three different renewable options to choose from. None of the options is perfect. But all of the options are better than just continuing to pay for the traditional mix.

The first of PGE's options is called Green Source. As a Green Source customer your green power dollars purchase energy from new wind (50%), geothermal (25%), and low-impact hydro (25%) sources in the northwest. Your cost? $0.008/kWh. We use about 1000 kWh per month (and are doing our best to do better) so our additional cost with this program would be about $8 tops.

The second option is Healthy Habitat. Healthy Habitat customers purchase energy from the same sources and at the same rate at Green Source customers. Additionally they pay a monthly fee of $2.50 which goes to the Nature Conservancy to restore salmon habitat in Oregon.

The third option is Clean Wind. This one is a little bit different. Clean Wind customers pay to help build new wind farms here in Oregon. You can purchase units of 200 kWh of new wind at $3.50 per month. However, you actually "receive" energy from both traditional and renewable resources - about 1/3 from coal, 1/3 from hydro, 1/5 from new wind, 1/6 from natural gas and the remainder from "old" wind and nuclear.

Our choice? Healthy Habitat. Green power and habitat for fish. I like it. I think this is the greenest of the three choices - 50% wind is fantastic. 25% geothermal requires drilling and plant construction but is still far and away a better choice than coal. 25% hydro - this is my biggest problem with the plan. Although it is "low-impact" the very existence of dams significantly impact rivers, river habitat and river life - including, but certainly not limited to, salmon and other fish. Still, a better option than coal which, of course, impacts rivers as well:

Many potential stressors are associated with mining activities. The physical and chemical stressors associated with mining are reflected by the composition of biological assemblages and the energy and material flows of the ecosystem ((e.g., Clements et al. [1992]; Starnes [1985]; Hill et al. [1997]). The principal response to physical habitat degradation is loss of biological diversity (fish, macroinvertebrates, algae) at both local (stream) and landscape (watershed) scales. Accelerated morbidity and mortality can also occur. Overall ecosystem function degrades.