Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

From their site:

The goal of NC GreenPower is to supplement the state’s existing power supply with more green energy – electricity generated from renewable resources like the sun, wind and organic matter. The program accepts financial contributions from North Carolina citizens and businesses to help offset the cost to produce green energy.

A typical contribution of just $4 per month adds one block of 100 kilowatt-hours of green energy to North Carolina’s power supply. Large-volume users – usually from the corporate sector – may contribute towards 100 or more blocks at a rate of $2.50 per block with a different energy mix. Together, we will make a positive impact on the environment.

Joel Makower has a review of several "Green Tag" websites, which allow you to pay a premium that helps offset the amount of fossil fuels you use. Basically, what you're doing is paying for green energy producers to replace less green technologies. Joel reviews a few of the sites and gives us his impressions.

He also helps to clear up some confusion on what exactly green tags are and what good they can do.

Check out the participating utilities list, and sign up. You can have the payments added to your utility bill in most cases (Duke Power being one that makes it really easy on their website).

According to their literature, every $4 donation will add one block of 100 kilowatt-hours of green energy to our state's power supply. Over a year, that's the environmental equivalent of not driving a car for 74 days or planting 150 trees!

Good going, NC! Keep it up!

Here's a good article about NC GreenPower.

I've signed on with Duke Power for 5 blocks of 100kwh each = 500kwh per month. That adds $20 to my energy bill for the comfort of mind to know that I'm offsetting all of my energy with alternatives somewhere else in the state.

I've also signed my own car and my girlfriend's car up for drivinggreen.com, which cost me $100 for a year total.

That's a combined total of $340 a year to know that I'm doing something helpful. You may not be making the larger sums of money that I am for sitting in a dimly lit box all day, so your mileage may vary.