Green Mountain Energy's Effects on the Air
- Green Mountain Energy offers a clean energy alternative to getting electricity from coal-fired power plants.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
According to the Green Mountain Energy website, since 1997 their customers have removed as much CO2 pollution from the atmosphere as taking 45 million cars off the road for a week, turning off the lights for a week in nearly 408 million homes or recycling nearly 4 billion pounds of newspaper. The company also says that the demand from their customers has resulted in the construction of more than 40 solar and wind facilities in the United States. - Customers in parts of California can tap into solar energy for their electricity.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Green Mountain Energy supports renewable energy projects across the country, including wind farms, solar panels, biomass, geothermal, landfill, hydroelectric power facilities and methane carbon capture offsets -- methane is a greenhouse gas that escapes from landfills and wastewater sites; new technology can capture and convert methane into usable biogas fuel. The type of renewable energy project used in a particular area depends on the natural resources of the region, for the most part. For example, Green Mountain Energy has two solar projects in California, four wind projects in Wyoming, two hydro projects in upstate New York and a geothermal project in Utah. - Customers can make their next flight carbon neutral by purchasing carbon offsets through Green Mountain Energy.Thomas Northcut/Photodisc/Getty Images
Some customers live in areas that do not have deregulated utility services or where Green Mountain has not partnered with a local utility. In that case, anyone can offset their carbon emissions and reduce their carbon footprint. Green Mountain offers consumers options to offset their carbon footprint from driving, flying, home electricity use and general offsets.
For example, if you own a fuel-efficient car or hybrid with a an average fuel economy of 38 to 60 miles per gallon, you can offset 3 metric tons of carbon emissions for $42. That money will go to support Green Mountain Energy's other clean energy projects that reduce or avoid carbon emissions. - Green Mountain Energy works for cleaner air with clean energy and carbon offsets.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
To figure out the CO2 their customers avoid, Green Mountain Energy multiplies the monthly electric usage in kilowatts per hour (kWh), times the percentage of renewable energy generation from the clean energy product, times the C02 emission rate of a typical dirty power system in that area, such as a coal-fired power plant.
