Going green
Yesterday, I changed my power provider. When the switch is done in the next days, I will get 100% green power created from regenerative sources like water, wind, solar energy or biomass.
I thought about doing this for quite a while now but never got my lazy ass up. So the recent price raise by the local (ex-monopolist) power company was a welcome extra motivation. In fact the switch itself was really easy. You just fill a form at your new provider and they will do everything else for you, including quitting your old provider.
The hard part was to find the right company to go to. Germany's power market wasn't opened until a few years ago. Most of the former government owned communal power companies where bought by big concerns - with the existing customer base of course. Because everybody is as lazy as me, most people in Germany are still customers at the ex-monopolists. Even though a broad spectrum of greener or cheaper alternatives is available.
For green power I had about a handful of companies to choose from. I finally decided for Lichtblick, a company offering eco power only. They had a few advantages over the others:
- → 100% green - no mix with other sources
- → dedicated to eco power with investment in alternative energy sources
- → parts of their winnings go to a rain forest protection project
- → they put their green power into the grid at the same time it is consumed by it's customers
So what about the costs? I have a very high energy consumption of about 3200Kw/h per year. With my new provider I will pay about 60 to 90 Euro more than I did last year and with the recent price raise at my former provider it's probably even closer to what I had to pay anyway.
I'm still far from living carbon neutral, but it's a first step. Oh and I'll also try to wear full pirate regalia as often as possible 