ANDERSON — On Earth Day, many Americans are looking at ways to reduce their impact on global climate change.
Though homeowners can replace their lights with LED fixtures, drive less or install solar panels on their houses, for apartment dwellers or renters who can’t make structural changes, there are fewer options.
But a system traditionally aimed at power producers and large businesses is slowly becoming a popular way for renters and apartment dwellers to offset the pollution emitted by coal or natural gas burning utilities that feed their energy needs.
Renewable Energy Certificates, or Green Tags, are a system whereby residents can purchase the environmental benefit to energy created by renewable methods such as wind, solar or biomass, even if they aren't using that electricity themselves. The REC buys the energy from a wind farm or solar array and ensures it makes its way to the grid, wherever it's located.
This not only offers a market for renewable energy, but also signals a market for more solar panels or windmills.
Even though the resident isn’t directly using the solar or wind power, they can essentially offset every kilowatt of power they use by injecting clean energy into the grid somewhere else.
ERCs are traditionally used by energy producers or large businesses that may be required by state or federal regulation to generate a portion of their energy through renewable means, said Matt Clouse, chief of the Energy Supply and Industry Branch at the Environmental Protection Agency. However, if a business is unable to complete these goals, it can purchase energy from a clean-energy producer to meet the requirement.
Though businesses have the resources to purchase the certificates directly, for homeowners, brokers can take a person’s electricity bill and offset it directly with green tags. A broker charges a small fee, usually around a percentage of a cent per kilowatt hour.
Clouse urges those interested in purchasing RECs to look into the company and ensure they are certified, so a customer can be sure they are getting what they pay for.
The nation’s only REC certifier is the Center for Resource Solutions' Green-E program, which will ensure brokers are purchasing and using the certificates.
RECs usually add between $10 and $20 to a customer's bill monthly, but for an environmentally conscious person who can't build their own renewable energy generator, it's a way to offset their environmental impact for a small investment.