Meatfrom1stgrade

Meatfrom1stgrade t1_ireforl wrote

Glad I could help!

>At least the offers I get in the mail pushing full renewable are honest and open that they're more expensive, using the environment as the selling point.

Well not exactly... full renewable doesn't actually mean the electricity you purchase is renewable (or that it is carbon free). Renewable in this case means they try to sell you as much renewable energy as possible, but there's not very much renewable power available in our part of the grid. So they buy renewable energy credits (REC) to cover the non-renewable electricity, they sell you. In theory, that should encourage more projects from renewable sources, but due to some complexities in the system, the RECs being purchased by individuals don't provide a good incentive to build more renewable power.

More information on RECs: https://www.urbangridsolar.com/what-is-a-rec-how-do-they-work/

This is also ignoring that not all renewables are carbon free (looking at you biomass), and that the largest source of carbon free electricity isn't renewable, and isn't supported by RECs (nuclear).

4