Green Options

Up here in the Bay Area where people are crazy about their wine and their green building, Gonzalez winery decided to combine both. No, the Monterey County based isn’t the first local winery to go solar but when this 170,000 square foot system gets up and running it will represent the largest solar installation at a winery.

The 1.2 megawatt solar [...]

Has the world gone Green PR mad? Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that Green is trendy, but I got this press release a couple days ago stating:

INTEL BECOMES LARGEST PURCHASER OF GREEN POWER IN THE U.S.

Company Tops EPA Green Power Partner List, Vows to Drive for Greater Efficiency While Spurring Growth in Renewable Market

I’m sorry but I had to jump on the Green soapbox. Intel announced that it purchased 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours a year of renewable energy certificates as part of a multi-faceted approach to reducing its impact on the environment. That’s great. I’m sure that Intel has its green heart in the right place. But the fact is that they purchased RECs. In the release they state: “Renewable energy certificates, or RECs, are the ‘currency’ of the renewable energy market and are widely recognized as a having credible and tangible environmental benefits.”

I might ruffle a few feathers but RECs are essentially a subsidy for clean-energy producers. Most of us realize that subsidies come from governments but in this case they come from us – consumers – or in this case, Intel. According to one noted London Carbon Trader, “It’s important to note that IN NO WAY does buying a REC mean that there’s going to be any more clean energy built, or any carbon reductions done. It just gives extra money to whoever has already produced it.”