green energy

Do you use green energy?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • No

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • I'm thinking about it...

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • What the hell is green energy?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3

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Location
Germany
Just being curious: How many people here use green energy?
Do you have the possibility to choose at your place? Have you thought about it?

To give a definition: 'green' electricity, is sustainable electricity from environmentally friendly energy sources (i.e. hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, tidal power). Nuclear power is not included here because the problem of radioactive waste is a long, long way from sustainability.

I'm starting this poll with "Yes".
 
I get gas and electric from Ecotricity, which is supposed to be fairly green, although a large part of that comes from conventional sources.

They claim to match the price of your local alternatives.
 
Coal is the only option here. It seems that the electric company has one wind farm, but it only generates enough energy to power 33k homes, and apparently over 75% of that power is actually sold to Sprint HQ. Pfft.
 
I know our local utility uses supposedly 'clean' coal and I don't know what else. I have solar panels on the roof that heat the hot water heater.
 
We use Good Energy as our supplier --I beleive it is the UK's only supplier for 100% reneawable energy. We used to be with Ecotricity but they only did a portion of their electricty as renewable and also had nuclear energy so we quit them for Good Energy. This may have changed since we switched--but we are still very happy with Good Energy.
 
I'm in the same boat with Forster.
Most of the electricity generated in Montana comes from 3 sources: dams (approx. 30%), coal burning (approx. 65%), petroleum (natural gas, etc.) (approx. 5%) and a comparatively small amount comes from wind generation.
To make where our power comes from more confusing though, what the major power company normally does is to sell the power generated in Montana out of state and then buy power back from out of state (often from themselves). This flim flam allows them to say it costs them more money and allows them to charge the consumers more.

I do use 2 solar chargers for the AA batteries I use in my eBook reader. Does that count?
 
Just being curious: How many people here use green energy?
Do you have the possibility to choose at your place? Have you thought about it?

To give a definition: 'green' electricity, is sustainable electricity from environmentally friendly energy sources (i.e. hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, tidal power). Nuclear power is not included here because the problem of radioactive waste is a long, long way from sustainability.

I'm starting this poll with "Yes".


Almost everybody here uses green energy. They also use the other kinds.

It's not clear what you are asking. Should we allow for the effects of energy transmission on the environment? The effects on habitat that alternative "green" sources have?
 
I said no because I don't see any wind generators and there's no running water nearby. So, I assume it's not green. And like others, there is only one utility company providing energy to my area.
 
Just being curious: How many people here use green energy?
Do you have the possibility to choose at your place? Have you thought about it?

To give a definition: 'green' electricity, is sustainable electricity from environmentally friendly energy sources (i.e. hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, tidal power). Nuclear power is not included here because the problem of radioactive waste is a long, long way from sustainability.

I'm starting this poll with "Yes".

I'm not sure what 'green' electricity is other than a buzz word and marketing tool.

While I do prefer some of the alternative energy production methods you mentioned, none are what I would call 'sustainable.'

Hydroelectricity from dams (unless you're talking about micro-hydro, which would not be from a power company) has a large environmental impact. Not as much as fossil fuel use, but still not insignificant. My current work is stream restoration which we get most of our funding to improve fish habitat from power company mitigation. Dams disrupt fish migrations, change stream and river characteristics, disrupt the deposition of sediment (increasing erosion downstream), flood useable land (if we're talking about lost land due to other measures, this should definitely be included), let's not forget the materials and upkeep that go into the structures, and that's really only scratching the surface. Hydroelectric energy production is not sustainable.

Our current solar energy methods are also not sustainable. Solar panels have a finite life, materials have to be mined and processed (fossil fuels currently...), environmental impacts due to the area used for energy production, the loss of animal life (including humans), etc.

On top of that our current model of centralized power distribution. How much material, processing, and upkeep are required to keep the infrastructure up and running (all those cables coated in plastic running all over the place, on metal or wood poles?)

In short, energy production in total is currently not sustainable.

In my opinion, if we're really concerned about the environment (including humans), instead of 'feel good' measures and labels, we need to have a much better idea of the overall impact our lives and choices have on the world around us. We need more quantitative comparisons to honestly compare energy production methods (as well as many other choices we make). Move away from words like 'green' or 'sustainable' and discuss actual effects and data.
 
We like good energy but they are crap at reading our meter. Because we live over the church offices our meter is in a locked cupboard downstairs behind the secretary's office. The offices are only open 9-12 and they always claim they couldn't find our meter (despite us telling them how and when to find it) and despite every other company (the church and the Flat 1 people use a different supplier) being able to find it. They often send us an OUTRAGEOUS estimate--like $400 and then say if this is wrong please read the meter yourself and correct us. So one of us has to take off of work and do it--because you have to crawl inside a dusty spider web filled crawl space to get to the meter and the secretary won't do it. Then it turns out we owe like £40 not £400....

But they are 100% renewable so we try not to moan too much.
 
I plan to one day be totally off the grid.
However I'm also planning to live with almost no electrical appliances.
My Grandparents and my Dad as a youth lived without them and I see no reason why I can't do the same.
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I am currently experimenting with building a twisted savonius wind turbine (with cloth, bent wire hangers, and dowels).
Supposedly this turbine as opposed with a normal savonius turbine will start without any external force other than wind, but like the original still runs in light winds.
If this works out I might build a larger model and hook it to a generator, using it to run a minimum of electrical items. However I don't like the idea of having to have an expensive and constantly wearing out bank of batteries.