The Energy Consumer's Bulletin- a New England energy news blog

New study confirms benefits to strengthening the Massachusetts’ Renewable Portfolio Standard

 An Analysis of the Massachusetts Renewable Portfolio Standard, prepared by Synapse Energy Economics and Sustainable Energy Advantage, demonstrates that increasing the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard by 2% to 3% per year better positions the state to comply with the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), while reducing costs to consumers and creating jobs.

Press Release and full report are available online.

Energy More Affordable Now than Ever, Greener Too

Americans are now spending less on energy as a percentage of income than ever recorded. That’s a finding from a recent study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. On average, consumers spend just four percent of their incomes on electricity, heat, and transportation. This statistic is a clear pushback against those who would say that “we cannot afford clean energy.” It also points out that our economy has changed over the years in such a way that we don’t need to burn as much stuff in order to make a living.

Community-Scale Wind power: A Case Study for the Holidays

The 600-kilowatt wind turbine at Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School is one of the wind turbines in our green power portfolio. The driving force behind the project was Mary E. Riordan, the school’s former biology teacher and headmaster, and now its Director of Institutional Advancement. According to Kevin Schulte of Sustainable Energy Developments Inc., who consulted on the development of this and many other turbine installations, “For a project to succeed, it needs a real champion; for the Holy Name wind turbine project, that champion is Mary Riordan.”

How far we’ve come since New England Wind Fund

https://www.greenenergyconsumers.org/aggregation15 years ago our non-profit organization stepped into the voluntary green power market, hoping to speed up pace of wind & solar development. A lot has changed for the better since then, but we’ve still got a long way to go. To get there, we need to speed up development of onshore wind power.

We did it! The RES Will Be Extended in Rhode Island

In the wee hours of the morning stretching the final day of the 2016 legislative session, the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) extension bills passed in both the Senate and the House.

They knocked on my door! The competitive electricity supplier conundrum

Have you recently received salespeople at your door or offers in the mail from competitive electricity suppliers? They lay the pitch on thick with too-good-to be true rates and feel-good energy mixes. It may seem hard to poke holes in the pitch, but under the smiling surface, many of these suppliers use smoke and mirror marketing to get their foot in the door and your signature on a contract.

Massachusetts: Early pioneer with ambitious goals, A Case Study on Climate Action and Energy Finance

In April, Mass Energy and People's Power & Light's Executive Director Larry Chretien spoke in front of a group from the Boston Area Sustainable Investment Consortium (BASIC). Larry spoke about policies that stimulate investment in renewable energy and how they can pay off. Below is a recap written by a BASIC member, Dan Saccardi from Synapse Energy Economics.

Why We Host Renewable Energy Tours

Some of the unique and, for us, most exciting aspects of our work at Mass Energy and People’s Power & Light are our site visits to local sources of renewable energy.

Since we only buy renewable energy from New England projects on behalf of our members, it’s not hard to bring them right to the source of their electricity. And not only that, but many developers and owners are keen to share their particular story.

Solar Panels, SRECs, Double-counting, Oh My!

Thanks to New England’s relatively strong solar policies, many of our members have gone solar – by owning panels, leasing panels, or participating in community solar programs. To those of you who have gone solar – congrats! However, even though you’re generating solar power, you’re probably not consuming the solar power you generate. In other words, even if you have solar panels or are participating in community solar, you cannot necessarily make the claim that you’ve reduced your personal greenhouse gas emissions as a result.

Having Our Cake and Eating It Too: How to use your heating oil savings wisely

Updated: August 10, 2017.
Compared to many years ago, the last few heating seasons have shown moderate prices and very little fluctuations. According to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA), the inventory of distillate oil (which covers heating oil and diesel fuel) is high. As a result, the likelihood of a price spike is quite low. However, the EIA does project a modest price increase of about 20 cents per gallon on average in the US between now and mid-winter.