Did you know that
both Boone Electric Cooperative and the City of Columbia’s Water & Light
Department offer a variety of energy saving programs that include rebates for
energy efficient appliances and energy efficiency upgrades? Both offer the Home Performance with Energy Star
Program, which provides rebates for energy saving improvements to your
home such as adding insulation, reducing duct leakage, reducing air leakage,
replacing windows and doors, and installing high efficiency air conditioners
and heat pumps. According to Boone Electric,
the average energy savings for many of their costumers is about 20%, but one
homeowner in their service area realized a savings of 46%, primarily by
dramatically increasing the amount of attic insulation, insulating air ducts
and reducing air leakage throughout the home.
That is a tremendous savings – saving dollars and reducing wasted energy.
Imagine the positive impact on our planet by reducing the need for
energy production by 20%-30% simply by reducing energy waste. As Boone Electric and its power supplier, Associated
Electric Cooperatives Inc. (AECI) state, “The greenest energy is the
energy never consumed.”
Renewable energy
options – wind and solar – are also available. Why use renewables? Simply put, energy generated from the sun or
the wind does not deplete these resources.
Plus these energy sources do not add increasing amounts of CO₂ to the
atmosphere.
The City of Columbia’s
energy portfolio includes about 8% to 10% renewable energy and the City Council
recently voted to purchase more wind power from their supplier. AECI,
the power supplier for Missouri’s REA Co-ops now produces about 20% of its
power from renewable sources – wind energy, 12%, and hydropower, 8%. Since 2003, Boone Electric customers have
been able to sign up to have at least a portion of their energy supplied by
wind power. Wind energy is offered in
100 kWh blocks at an additional charge of $2.00/block/month. There is no minimum or maximum number of
blocks to purchase, but customers must make a 12-month commitment to
participate in the program.
A few months ago
Boone Electric put their 400-panel Community Solar Project into operation. Customers can now sign up to purchase output
from one or more panels at a cost of about $3.50/month/panel. Sunlight is free, but this small additional cost
(about the cost of a fancy cup of coffee) added to the regular electric bill is
required to help pay the cost of construction and maintenance of the ‘solar farm’. Boone Electric’s Board of Directors has
offered to build another 400-panel ‘solar farm’ if customers ‘purchase’ all the
current panels; currently 176 panels are spoken for. No time commitment is required.
Installing an
individual renewable energy system is also an option. Well over 40 Boone REA customers have
installed such systems – primarily solar, a few, wind energy. Visit with Dennis Bettenhausen who installed
a 16.9 KW PV (solar) system last fall and learn more about a homeowner project
right here in Olivet’s neighborhood.
This system produced 21,856 kWh in its first full year of
production. If this amount of
electricity had been produced at a coal-fired plant, it would have resulted in
the production of 45,242 pounds of CO₂. (See the US Energy Information
Administration for conversion factors – www.eia.gov/tools/
)
è Resolve to check out what’s right for you:
1)
Review information posted on the bulletin board
in Fellowship Hall
2)
Contact your utility service provider to learn
more – they are very helpful:
·
Boone Electric Co-operative: call 449-4181 and ask for Member Services or
visit: http://www.booneelectric.coop/
3)
Make an investment in a brighter, cleaner, healthier
future for the next generation and for Planet
Earth – our Common Home
è Resolve to think about ways that Olivet might better conserve energy
resources and participate in renewable energy.
Sustainable Living Steering Committee,
Marilyn Bettenhausen, Chair
