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Energy Fundamentals
The electric grid is like a giant interconnected web that delivers electricity from power plants to homes, businesses, and other end-users. Imagine it as a highway system where electricity travels from the power plant (the starting point) through a series of transmission lines (the highways) and distribution lines (the local roads) to finally reach our homes and businesses (the destination).
The electric grid’s impact on carbon emissions and pollution depends on the types of power plants generating the electricity.
- Fossil Fuels: When the grid relies heavily on coal, oil, or natural gas plants, it results in high carbon emissions and air pollution. These plants release carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter, contributing to climate change and health problems.
- Renewable Energy: If the grid incorporates more renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, it significantly reduces carbon emissions and pollution. Renewables produce little to no greenhouse gases or air pollutants during operation.
Transitioning to a grid powered by renewable energy sources is key to reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with electricity generation.
Renewable Energy
Job Creation: The renewable energy sector is labor-intensive and creates more jobs per unit of energy generated compared to fossil fuels. These jobs range from manufacturing and installation to maintenance and operations.
Energy Independence: Investing in renewable energy reduces dependence on imported fuels, enhancing national security and stabilizing energy prices. This can protect the economy from global energy market fluctuations.
Sustainable Growth: Renewable energy sources are abundant and inexhaustible. Utilizing these sources ensures a stable and sustainable energy supply, supporting long-term economic growth.
Environmental Benefits: Renewables produce little to no greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing pollution lowers healthcare costs and mitigates the economic impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events and rising sea levels.
Innovation and Competitiveness: Embracing renewable energy drives technological innovation and can position the U.S. as a global leader in clean energy technologies. This can lead to export opportunities and strengthen the country’s economic competitiveness.
Cost Savings: Over time, the cost of renewable energy technologies has been decreasing. Investing in renewables can lead to lower energy costs for consumers and businesses, freeing up capital for other economic activities.
Volatility of Prices: Fossil fuel prices can be highly volatile due to geopolitical tensions, market speculation, and supply disruptions. This unpredictability can lead to economic instability.
Environmental Costs: The extraction, processing, and burning of fossil fuels contribute to environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, and climate change. These environmental impacts result in substantial economic costs related to healthcare, disaster recovery, and environmental restoration.
Depletion of Resources: Fossil fuels are finite resources. As they become scarcer, extraction becomes more expensive, driving up energy costs. This can strain the economy, especially industries heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
Dependency on Imports: The U.S. imports a significant portion of its fossil fuels. This dependency can lead to trade imbalances and make the country vulnerable to foreign market fluctuations and political instability in exporting regions.
Missed Opportunities for Innovation: Relying heavily on fossil fuels can stifle innovation and investment in newer, cleaner technologies that could drive future economic growth and create high-quality jobs.
Sustainable: Endless abundant, supply.
Environmentally Friendly: Reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Provides Economic Benefits: Creates jobs and can lower energy costs.
Creates Energy Independence: Reduces reliance on imported fuels and foreign governments.
Non-renewable energy comes from sources that will eventually run out, like coal, oil, and natural gas. Once we exhaust these resources, they’re essentially gone forever, which is why they’re called non-renewable. As scarcity increases over time, so will the price of these fuels. Non-renewable sources have the added problem of releasing harmful pollutants when used.
Renewable energy comes from abundant, natural sources that can be replenished. This includes sunlight, wind, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. These sources are essentially endless and can be used repeatedly. The use of renewable energy results in zero emissions of carbon and other pollutants.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
A Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) represents proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source. It’s like a receipt showing that a certain amount of clean energy was produced and added to the grid.
RECs help track and verify the production of renewable energy. Without RECs we cannot know and validate the amount of renewable energy on the U.S grid. Importantly, RECs provide a way for businesses and individuals to support renewable energy even if they can’t produce it themselves.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) play a crucial role in supporting and incentivizing the development of renewable energy facilities. Here’s how RECs benefit the owners of these facilities:
- Revenue Generation: RECs provide an additional revenue stream for renewable energy facility owners. Owners can sell these certificates to utilities, businesses, and individuals looking to voluntarily balance their carbon emissions, thus earning extra income beyond the sale of the electricity itself.
- Market Expansion: By creating a market for renewable energy, RECs help expand the demand for renewable energy. This market demand encourages the development of new renewable energy projects, as developers can count on the revenue from REC sales to make their projects financially viable.
- Environmental Impact Recognition: RECs enable the separation of the environmental benefits of renewable energy from the physical electricity. This allows renewable energy facility owners to monetize the environmental benefit of their clean energy production, making it clear that their facilities contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.
- Encouraging Investment: The existence of a robust REC market can make renewable energy projects more attractive to investors. Knowing that there is a market for RECs provides assurance that the project will have multiple revenue streams, thus reducing financial risk and encouraging investment in renewable energy infrastructure.
No. RECs are market-based instruments that represent the property rights to the environmental,
social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation and are the only legal
documentation recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as providing a
guarantee for the delivery of renewable energy and its environmental benefits to the grid. RECs
procured through Sustainable Choice are a claim to the property rights of the environmental benefits
of a specific quantity of solar, wind, or hydroelectric power.
REC purchases are renewable energy market transactions that provide clean energy with a distinct advantage in the energy market and are a key component of project financial viability. RECs harness the power of the free market to accelerate renewable energy investment, project construction, and power delivery.
No. Renewable Energy Certificates and Carbon Offsets are different. One way to think about it is that Carbon Offsets are greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from projects that store or reduce carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon Offsets can be applied to many different sources of emissions. Renewable Energy Certificates are a claim to environmental benefits, including carbon, of producing electricity without emissions. Each unit of renewable energy delivered to the U.S. grid means that a non-renewable resource isn’t needed for that quantity of energy. RECs work to reduce the emissions of our electricity supply by displacing non-renewable sources of energy. This does not happen overnight, but over time a large enough amount of renewable energy can supplant and replace non-renewable energy. The question is how fast. Participation in Sustainable Choice is designed to accelerate the transition from non-renewable to renewable power.
To learn more, we recommend: Offsets and RECs: What’s the Difference? (epa.gov)
No. Renewable Energy Certificates are different from federal or state tax credits available for
renewable resources. This can be confusing as in some cases RECs are called Renewable Energy
Credits. The proper term is Renewable Energy Certificates which helps to keep the two separate.
No. Transparency is our not-so-secret ingredient. Unfortunately, others in the market may lead you to think your home will be supplied with physical electrons directly from renewable energy projects. We cannot control the actions of others in the market and believe such claims harm efforts to sustain
and grow renewable energy.
Please know that Sustainable Choice is not an electricity supplier. With Sustainable Choice you are purchasing RECs, which are a claim to the delivery of renewable energy to the shared electric grid. Your participation in Sustainable Choice will not instantly change the electricity coming into your home today. With your Sustainable Choice REC purchases, your demand for renewable electricity is met by verified renewable resources on the wider electricity grid. RECs certify the delivery of clean energy into the national energy supply, improving the economics for renewable development and operations while paving the way for greater investment and build-out of renewable energy.
To learn more about the legal basis and important role RECs play in strengthening and growing American renewable energy, we suggest reviewing the following resources:
Sustainable Choice
What is Sustainable Choice?
Sustainable Choice is an innovative initiative designed to make renewable energy accessible and affordable to everyone, regardless of their living situation or the suitability of their property for renewable energy. By connecting individuals and businesses with renewable energy projects, Sustainable Choice empowers participants to contribute to the shift from fossil fuels to a 100% carbon-free future.
Anyone looking to see renewable energy thrive and grow can benefit from Sustainable Choice. Whether you’re a homeowner, rent an apartment, own a condo, or represent a business, Sustainable Choice provides a straightforward path to contribute to a sustainable future without the need for installing equipment or making significant property modifications.
Sustainable Choice operates by leveraging Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to match your energy use with clean, renewable energy produced elsewhere. This means that no matter where you live, you can still support renewable energy. As clean electricity is fed into the shared grid, corresponding RECs are generated and can be purchased through Sustainable Choice, ensuring that your energy consumption is effectively balanced by renewable sources.
Sustainable Choice plays a crucial role in accelerating the transition to renewable energy by creating demand for clean power and supporting the expansion of renewable projects. It embodies a collective effort to reduce carbon emissions and build a sustainable future, demonstrating that every individual and business can contribute to the clean energy transition.
Sustainable Choice is different from others in several key aspects:
Renewable Energy Only: We only source from solar, wind, and hydro projects. We do not contribute to the burning of renewable gas, biomass, municipal solid waste, or fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil, etc.)
Renewable Energy Choice: We offer a range of renewable energy services to meet your needs. Our three outstanding services balance your sustainable goals with affordability. Our premium service, Elevate, allows you to access some of the newest solar and wind projects available on the market. Additionally, our Corporate Enterprise customers have the option to source from specific facilities.
Renewable Energy Asset Construction and Ownership: Competition in the market is comprised largely of resellers and remarketers. Sustainable Choice stands out from the crowd because we are backed by one of solar industry’s most trusted renewable asset owners and developers. Sustainable Choice is owned by Sol Systems, a company focused on the construction and ownership of solar assets, ensuring the highest standards of quality and long-term sustainability in their projects.
Community Impact: In addition to accelerating clean energy, your Sustainable Choice purchase helps to fund projects that deliver tangible benefits to local communities, including job creation, energy efficiency and environmental improvements. No other service currently offers community impact on a nationwide basis.
Joining Sustainable Choice not only helps transition the U.S. energy supply to cleaner sources but also supports community impact projects. A portion of every purchase contributes to the Community Impact Fund, which invests in job creation, environmental education, restoration projects and energy efficiency in underserved communities.
Yes, businesses of all sizes can join Sustainable Choice to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and renewable energy. This initiative allows companies to support clean energy projects, reduce their carbon footprint, and invest in community impact through environmental education, restoration projects, and job training programs. We recommend exploring Sustainable Choice Enterprise if your business is interested in addressing supply chain, employee, or customer carbon emissions.
Go solar if you can. If installing renewable energy at your home is a viable option for you, then go
for it. Sustainable Choice is not designed to supplant rooftop solar, geothermal, or any other source
of on-site or grid tied renewable options. Consider Sustainable Choice as an alternative to solar if it
is otherwise unavailable to you.
Solar or other renewable resources may be unavailable for many reasons such as cost, space, shade, property limitations, or availability. You may also investigate community solar and find it is unavailable in your area or there is a lengthy waitlist. If this is the case, Sustainable Choice is a great solution. Sustainable Choice removes these barriers, enabling anyone to support renewable energy through RECs, without the need for physical installations, upfront investment or long-term contracts.
No. The cleanest unit of electricity is the unit you never use. At Sustainable Choice we advocate
energy efficiency first. While Sustainable Choice matches your electric use with wind, solar,
or hydro RECs, participation is not a license to use electricity without a care in the world. In fact, just the opposite. As you’ve noticed, Sustainable Choice is not free of charge. A big gap in today’s energy market is that the cost of environmental degradation is not priced into our energy bills. In part, it is why we find ourselves with an energy supply heavy on emissions and light on clean power. While still affordable, Sustainable Choice provides an economic price signal to help you see what it means to attain a clean energy supply. Through Sustainable Choice you can get a better picture of the true costs of energy and take practical energy efficiency steps.
Sol Systems
Who is Sol Systems? Sol Systems is a national renewable energy company founded in 2008, specializing in the development, financing, and management of renewable energy projects. Sol Systems serve a wide range of clients, including corporations, utilities, municipalities, and individuals, providing sustainable energy solutions. To learn more, please visit www.solsystems.com
The mission of Sol Systems is to build a sustainable clean energy future for America. We seek to achieve this by deploying renewable energy projects, growing demand for renewable energy, and supporting initiatives that benefit communities and the environment.
Sol Systems stands out due to its extensive expertise and proven track record in the renewable energy industry. At Sol, we have deployed billions of dollars in renewable energy assets and have a robust portfolio of successfully financed and managed renewable energy projects. Our approach integrates financial, technical, and operational excellence to ensure high-quality outcomes.
Customer Support
Please visit our Customer Support Center where you will find answers to the most common questions about Sustainable Choice.
The Sustainable Choice team of renewable energy experts is available Monday – Friday, 9AM EST to 5PM EST. The best way to reach our team is to email us at: info@solsystems.com
To help us assist you quickly and effectively, please provide as much detail as possible in your initial message. The more information you share about your situation, the better we can understand and resolve your issue.
When contacting support, be sure to include:
- Explain the problem or question in detail, covering what went wrong, what steps you have already taken, what you expected to happen, and what you would like to happen.
- Provide links to the specific pages of your site related to your request.
- If you see an error message, include the exact text.
- Attach a screenshot or short video that shows the issue when possible.
Yes! We have a first-class support team of renewable energy experts based in the U.S. who can answer your questions 9AM to 5PM EST, 5 days a week! Just call (888) 235-1538 or view the bottom of any of our pages to see our contact information.
