The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Will on April 20, 2014, 11:46:56 PM
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First, let me state that I know very little about Pear Energy. I am not trying to promote it in any way. I merely would like to see some discussion on the potential Mustachian merits of such an idea.
I was going through my emails when I saw I had one from a place called Pear Energy. This is what it said:
We are Pear Energy, and we make renewable energy simple and affordable for your home or small business. Pear Energy gives you the opportunity to stand up for a cleaner environment and actively reduce your carbon footprint. We do this by working with cooperative and municipally-owned wind and solar producers to deliver clean energy to the U.S. electrical grid. There are no contracts, no cancellation fees and no equipment installations—just clean, natural, renewable energy.
Simply by signing up for Pear Energy you and your family will avert 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide from being pumped into the atmosphere annually—that's equivalent to planting almost 200 trees! We are on a mission to fight climate change and build the green economy, and we want you to join us!
Please feel free to call or email with any additional questions, or simply visit our website to learn more or sign up.
Sure, it sounds good, but what does it cost? Well, they have this to say about that:
Pear Energy costs a little more than you pay for electricity now, but it can make a big impact. If you choose to power your home with wind, we charge 2¢ more per kilowatt hour than your current utility for your first 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity use, and 1.5¢ for each additional kilowatt hour after that. If you choose solar, we charge 3¢ more per kilowatt hour than your current utility.
Like I said, I just found out about this, but it sounds pretty Mustachian to me. Does anyone here use them? What are your thoughts and opinions? Here is a link if you want to poke around more yourself: http://www.pear-energy.com/
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Nobody has anything to say?
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It looks like they just buy tradeable renewable energy credits. My electric company does that and it costs less than 1.5c/kWh. (I know, because we buy them.)
When renewable energy is created it's basically divided into the actual energy and these carbon credits, because when it goes into the grid it's all just electricity. Then the renewable producer can sell the credits separately, and other parties can purchase the credits and then market that energy as renewable. So I'm getting coal electricity with as many kWhs of wind credits as I actually use, and paying a little more than I would for coal electricity without the credits. If that's worth it to you, you should see if you can get those credits for less than the prices that company charges.
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Not to be confused with lemon energy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_battery).
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Reducing your actual energy consumption or boot-strapping into going off grid would be more Mustachian. I am generally skeptical of carbon credit programs unless offered directly through your utility.
Avoid.
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I am generally skeptical of carbon credit programs unless offered directly through your utility.
Avoid.
Why?