Cohousing-L Mailing List: Renewable Energy Credits

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Joel Plotkin <joel.plotkin [at] sunyit.edu>
is the author of the message below.
t was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>.
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Listfriends:

Do any of the coho communities that consider themselves eco-villages
participate in renewable energy credit markets? Do you, on your own
or through a broker like Carbonfund, receive money that reflects the
value placed on reducing your carbon footprint through photovoltaics,
domestic solar hot water, recycled waste water, mandated,
conservation, green construction...I'm not referring here to federal,
state or private grants to help green up , but to the market credits
that are being brokered and sold like commodities at places like the
Chicago Energy Esxchange.

Our PVs at Hundredfold Farm reduce our electric bills on a
watt-for-watt basis; any over production returned to the grid is
banked and reimbursed at the end of the year at the wholesale
generation rate (as if we were, say, a coal-fired plant), so we do
receive some cash benefits for our virtue, but it would be nice to
get more.

I leave aside the wisdom or morality of letting polluters buy off
their sins by rewarding our virtues; the market exists and we'd like
(maybe, if terms are not too onerous) our piece of it

Joel Plotkin
Hundredfold Farm
Orrtanna, PA
http://hundredfoldfarm.org