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Green Power Is Clean Power
Green Power Buyers Guide
(For residential NIMO and NYSEG Customers)
This document contains everything you ever wanted to know about buying green power for your home! It is part of a green power education project sponsored by WNY Green Power is Clean Power, a coalition of 20 environmental and community groups. It is intended for residential customers of Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and New York State Electric and Gas.
UB Buys Green Power!
New York Governor's Executive Order 111 requires State agencies to buy green power. UB has enthusiastically embraced this mandate and become a State leader in buying green power. Learn about recent purchases of wind energy.
What is Green Power?
(See the "Make Green Power Your Choice!" for more details)
Green power is electricity that is generated using clean energy resources. These resources include wind, solar, low-impact hydro, biomass (energy from trees and plants), landfill gas, and geothermal.
Wind
Wind power is clean -- it produces no pollutants. And when wind power is purchased, existing new wind farms become profitable -- prompting wind developers to build the next wind farm. That shifts the mix toward clean generation.
Solar (Photovoltaics or PV)
Generating electricity from solar photovoltaic panels also produces no emissions, though it is generally not cost competitive at this time.
Hydroelectricity
The hydro currently sold as green power in New York is from smaller, older dams with limited water flow, water quality, fish, and land use environmental impacts
Biomass
Defining green or environmentally sustainable biomass-generated electricity has proved difficult and contentious. Biomass can be so broadly defined to include unsustainably harvested forest timber, contaminated waste wood, municipal solid waste, and tires. Some definitions include landfill gas, while some do not. Environmental groups are pushing for a more narrow definition of biomass green power which excludes burning garbage and limits biomass to sources such as forest-related harvesting residue, landscaping and right-of-way trimmings, and agricultural crops and crop by-products. Additionally, biomass must be burned cleanly to be green, and this is not a given. Burning landfill gas is viewed by environmentalists as an environmentally sound practice, but many object to characterizing it as biomass energy.
Landfill Gas
Landfills produce methane gas which is a powerful greenhouse gas if vented un-burnt to the atmosphere. While burning landfill methane gas is not pollution-free, it is much better to burn it than vent it. Burning landfill gas to produce electricity also reduces fossil fuel use, another plus.
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