mellowtigger: (gardening)
mellowtigger ([personal profile] mellowtigger) wrote2021-04-21 09:29 pm

Xcel Energy's Windsource program

A few years ago, I tried to join a solar farm through Xcel Energy, which provides electricity to my house.  They matched me with a provider looking for customers, and that company sent me a subscription packet.  I couldn't make any sense of it.  It was a huge stack of papers in legalese.  I never signed it.

I went back later to the Xcel Energy website, and they had a new offering called "Windsource".  No overwhelming legalese.  I signed up for "100% renewable energy" right there on their website.  Easy.  I've been in it over 2 years now.  They send an annual statement with some details about my usage and carbon impact.  Here is the notice that I received today.

2020 Environmental Impact for Terry:

Last year, you purchased 4596 kilowatt hours of wind power. That’s equivalent to 6.2 hours of a 2 Megawatt wind turbine operating at capacity. You also avoided 4798 pounds of CO2 being released into the atmosphere, which is as much as 5459 miles driven in a car. We appreciate your commitment to wind energy. Together, the Windsource community purchased 641.7 million kilowatt-hours of wind energy in 2020. That’s enough electricity to power 76,820 homes!

That sounds good.  I guess?  I have no sense of scale, though.  I have nothing to compare it with.  I'll take the "win" anyway.  I'm at 100% renewable electricity, which is great.  I still need to figure out how to eliminate my gas usage.  That's something I don't think is feasible without just demolishing and rebuilding the whole house with a focus on solar thermal heating (both water and air).  I once visited a house designed that way, so I know it's possible even in cold Minnesota.

Maybe someday.  For now, I'll just take these numbers as a momentary "win".  Still waiting for that Green New Deal to happen.
mtbc: photograph of me (Default)

[personal profile] mtbc 2021-04-22 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Great! Getting partway still counts, goodness. For what it's worth, I think there are supposed to be variants of electric heat pumps that can actually make sense in colder climates but I don't now recall any details.
mllesatine: some pink clouds (Default)

[personal profile] mllesatine 2021-04-22 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you also heat your house with electricity? 3496 kwh is a lot for one person.

I should check what kind of electricity source I can get. I think my provider has different options.