buying green power to green suppliers

The electricity market is changing and is more open to competition in many countries and states, where there now multiple electricity suppliers and service offerings instead of just one big power supplier.

Buying Directly to Green Suppliers

In some cases, you just have to choose the green-power company and make a contract for its purchase. Which doesn't necessarily mean that you will begin to receive the green power directly from the new company.

Most of the times the green company will feed the power into a global power grid, and the electricity will be delivered to your home and often billed by your current utility.

Buying green Power to your Utility

In some cases you buy the green electricity to your utility directly (which will mean that your utility is reselling green electricity - previously bought to green power companies - to their customers).

You just have to contact your utility, and ask them about this possibility – a possibility often associated with Certificates (see: Green Power Certificates).

Green Electricity Prices

Note: current green power prices are typically higher than those of non-renewable sources. The difference isn’t high, and there are cases where it may not exist, and it might be different in the near future, but in countries like USA the most typical current situation is a premium around 2 cents per kW.

That represents around $5 to $20 more per month in your bills, depending on the source of the power. Hydropower is very competitive and may not involve any additional, but other sources almost always involve premiums.

Green power providers

In USA, there are now several companies offering green power to retail or wholesale customers in California, District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and some New England states. See: EERE Department of Energy: Green Power Providers List.

For information involving other countries, see: Green Power Providers