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A Minnesota law passed the legislature in 2007 and was signed by Governor Pawlenty mandating that electric utilities in the state generate or procure, by 2025, 25% of their retail electric sales from renewable sources, which includes solar, wind, hydroelectric, hydrogen, biomass, and refuse-derived fuel (garbage). Crow Wing Power's wholesale energy provider Great River Energy (GRE) is well on their way to reaching that goal and currently has a mix of renewables in their portfolio. In addition, our members have an opportunity to purchase wind power voluntarily.
Your cooperative's wind energy comes from a regional source - wind farms in southwestern Minnesota, one of only a handful of places in the nation where wind-generation is feasible.
The Power to Choose: By selecting part of your power through Crow Wing Power's Green Power program, you can make a difference in today's world. You’ll be choosing to participate in a program that can lead to a cleaner world for future generations; to help preserve our nation's non-renewable energy sources, like coal and other fossil fuels currently used to produce electricity; and to help spur further development of wind energy and other renewable energy sources. Currently we have over 1100 customers enrolled in our greenpower program purchasing over 590,000 kWhs each month of wind-generated electricity. That's enough elecricity to power over 700 homes!
What is the cost of wind energy?: Wind energy is available in 100-kilowatt-hour blocks (a typical home uses 800 to 900 kilo-watt- hours per month). You choose how many blocks you would like to purchase — from as little as one block to as much as your total electrical use. For 2009, the cost is 40 cents over and above the cost of normal electricity for each 100 kWh block. The amount of wind energy you choose, as well as the fee, will be noted on your electric bill each month.
Why is there an added charge for wind energy?: At this time, the costs of research and development for wind energy are higher than most other sources of power. Also, when the wind is not blowing, the turbines are idle. That requires constructing duplicate generators using coal or other fossil fuels to provide 100% reliability. However, we believe our customers understand that selecting wind energy is a worthwhile choice.
Where your energy electrons come from?: Great River Energy (GRE) generates electricity from a variety of fuels including coal, gas and refuse-derived fuel. To meet customer demand, GRE also buys electricity from other utilities that is generated from a variety of fuels including coal, oil, gas and hydro. Through an arrangement with another utility that supplies wind-generated electricity, we can offer you this choice to meet part of your electricity usage. Given the nature of how electricity flows, no one can tell which electrons you’re getting at any given time. We do, however, guarantee the wind energy kilowatt-hours you purchase replace the amount of fossil fuel that would be used to generate the equivalent kilowatt-hours to meet your demand.
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