Xcel Energy's Windsource program

[mellowtigger]

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.

Comments

[mellowtigger]

I've done some more searching, and it looks like my numbers really are lower than typical. I found this webpage more helpful than most that I looked at. It notes that northern states tend to be dual-sourced between electricity and gas, while southern states tend more towards all electric.

"The average U.S. household consumes about 11,000 kilowatthours (kWh) per year."
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/electricity-use-in-homes.php

[darkoshi]

Last year at my house I used 5300 KWH and the year before 5100. I'm in SC and don't use the A/C nearly as much as most people otherwise it would be higher. At my partner's house, he uses about 6000 to 8000 a year. We both have a gas heater and gas water heater. Your numbers, being up north, sound pretty good to me.

About electric blankets, I use one at night in the winter to keep my feet warm in bed. When I used a Kill-a-watt meter to check how much energy it uses, I was surprised at how low it was - under half a watt. Although when I initially turned on the blanket, it showed 160W and then immediately dropped to the lower numbers, so I'm not certain the meter was measuring it right.

I considered one of those solar farms but for various reasons didn't do it. I still might like to someday, or maybe get panels on my roof though that has other benefits and drawbacks.