Green Power
A few years ago we signed up to get GreenPower for our home. Our electricity provider, Synergy, offers a few different options. We chose NaturalPower, which buys renewable energy instead of coal-fired power.
NaturalPower costs 4.4 cents extra per unit of electricity. We use about 1085 units of electricity every 2 months. This works out to an extra 21 cents a day (just over $75 a year extra cost). For this extra cost, what happens is that Synergy buys 1085 units less of coal-fired power, and 1085 units more of renewable energy - I believe in our area we get it from wind-farms.
The electricity that comes to our house looks pretty much the same as the electricity going to our next-door neighbours! But less pollution was made to provide us with energy, for very little extra cost.
If the cost is an issue for you, there are a few cheaper options offered by Synergy in WA:
- EarthFriendly, which offsets the pollution from coal-fired power
- only buying 50% of your energy on the NaturalPower or EarthFriendly schemes
- EasyGreen, which lets you pay in installments
Alternatively, you could write and ask why people who do the right thing by choosing less-polluting electricity have to pay more than those using coal-fired power! SmartAndGreen are running an email campaign at the moment - more details and contact addresses can be found at the O2WA blog.
If you’re not in WA, check the GreenPower.com.au website to see what’s available in your state.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Hey Jules,
We too switched to Greenpower awhile ago - we figure the slight increase in cost is worth it. But I’m now off to follow your link for the email campaign to query why it costs more to do the right thing!
Jac
October 14th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Hi Jac - I agree, I think the extra cost is worth it, especially for a new product on the market. And we’ve always been early adopters
But at some point (and I hope it’s now), it should be cheaper to do the right thing than it is to do the easy thing…