[Greenbuilding] Wind power question

[Susannah Meininger]

I have 100% wind power for my home & business.  In my locale it costs 
20% more, rather than 50%.

At 09:12 AM 9/13/2007, requiredemail1 wrote:
>  Naturally, the
>operator might not be able to turn a profit at 4 cents and, therefore, might
>not operate indefinitely or might not invest in additional turbines in the
>future.
>
>So maybe the best that I could say is that by paying 50% more for "100% wind
>power," I'm making it more profitable to operate wind turbines, which might
>mean that operators would invest in bringing online more wind turbines in
>the future than they otherwise would.  In this way, my choice wouldn't
>affect the balance of energy sources used today but might affect the balance
>of sources used in the future.

I believe this is correct.  In essence,your purchase is a 
vote.  Those who are old enough will recall that in the early 80's, 
when home recycling first became popular (where I live, anyway) 
recycled-content office paper cost 50% more.  Producers insisted that 
ther surveys showed that consumers would not pay a premium for 
recycled content products.  They were wrong, though.  Many of us 
sought such products out, and now they are the standard and cost no 
more than the rarely-seen non-recycled versions.  Power companies 
need to make money like anyone else.  If they see that green power is 
what their customers want (as evidenced by our willingness to pay a 
temporary premium) then they will produce more of it, and the 
less-green options will be phased out as a side effect.  Prices will 
come down as volume increases.  Sheesh, I sound like some kinda Econ101 prof.

>On the other hand, maybe I, and other residential energy customers, should
>use our $250-300 per year in a way that has more direct effects on fossil
>fuel emissions.

An excellent topic for discussion!  Are there "other ways" that would 
have both effects -- decreasing fossil fuel emmissions and increasing 
investment in green power technologies?  Or have some other benefical effect?


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