Lots of US states have legislation that lets you choose your energy provider. People buy from the 100% green energy providers if they wish to pay more, not if they wish to save money.
Source: Several of my friends live in these states; they pay more to buy from 100% green energy providers.
Except you can’t choose where your energy is coming from as the grid is balanced by any means necessary and that tick box to buy only green energy is just free money for energy companies.
Are you getting their specific electrons? No. (Electrons in AC systems don’t actually travel very far, you get the same ones jiggling back and forth!) But they make that much more power and your previous provider makes that much less power. The end result is you buy power from that provider, just as promised.
As you said, the grid must be balanced. Your old provider cannot generate the power, and your new provider must generate the amount if power you now buy. If either of those are not the case, the grid is not balanced.
Yeah because companies in the US exploit everything and everyone until they get stopped (which they don’t)
And probably because fossil energy gets subsidised heavily to compete with renewable energy. So on your electricity bill the fossil is cheaper but your taxes are sent there ten times.
In the US, a big part of it is that natural gas is a waste product of oil fracking. If you want the oil, you will get a giant gob of natural gas to go with it. The stuff is really, really fucking cheap because of this.
Lots of US states have legislation that lets you choose your energy provider. People buy from the 100% green energy providers if they wish to pay more, not if they wish to save money.
Source: Several of my friends live in these states; they pay more to buy from 100% green energy providers.
Except you can’t choose where your energy is coming from as the grid is balanced by any means necessary and that tick box to buy only green energy is just free money for energy companies.
Are you getting their specific electrons? No. (Electrons in AC systems don’t actually travel very far, you get the same ones jiggling back and forth!) But they make that much more power and your previous provider makes that much less power. The end result is you buy power from that provider, just as promised.
As you said, the grid must be balanced. Your old provider cannot generate the power, and your new provider must generate the amount if power you now buy. If either of those are not the case, the grid is not balanced.
Yeah because companies in the US exploit everything and everyone until they get stopped (which they don’t)
And probably because fossil energy gets subsidised heavily to compete with renewable energy. So on your electricity bill the fossil is cheaper but your taxes are sent there ten times.
Well currently the US is fucked anyway
In the US, a big part of it is that natural gas is a waste product of oil fracking. If you want the oil, you will get a giant gob of natural gas to go with it. The stuff is really, really fucking cheap because of this.