green power
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CT: Green power can be procured several different ways. The main distinction among the options is the type of supplier and where the electricity generation equipment is located: on the electric grid or at the facility. For electricity delivered over the power grid, the status of utility restructuring in that state will determine whether an organization is limited to buying green power from its local distribution utility or whether it can choose among competitive power suppliers. Even if the state has no green power marketers or the utility does not offer a green power option, an organization can buy renewable energy certificates (RECs). For on-site green power, the resources available at that site (e.g., solar, wind, biomass) are the main factors determining a project’s feasibility.
The range of supply options in the market provides considerable flexibility to green power buyers. Organizations are able to consider factors such as price, specific green power generation resource (e.g., wind versus solar), ease of procurement, and the location and year of the generating facility in their purchasing decisions. By considering these issues, buyers may be able to choose a specific type of green power product or mix and match green power products to meet their desired goals.

S: EPA – http://www3.epa.gov/greenpower/documents/purchasing_guide_for_web.pdf (last access: 11.12.2015)

N: 1. green (adj.): From Old English grene, and this from Northumbrian groene “green, of the color of living plants,” in reference to plants, “growing, living, vigorous,” also figurative, of a plant, “freshly cut,” of wood, “unseasoned”. The earlier word groeni, comes from Proto-Germanic gronja-, and from PIE root ghre– “grow”, through sense of “color of growing plants.” First Known Use: before 12th century.
power (n): ‘ability; ability to act or do; strength, vigor, might,’ especially in battle; ‘efficacy; control, mastery, lordship, dominion; legal power or authority; authorization; military force, an army,’ from Anglo-French pouair, Old French povoir, noun use of the infinitive, ‘to be able,’ earlier podir (9c.), from Vulgar Latin potere, from Latin potis meaning ‘powerful’. First Known Use: 13th century.
2. The term green power is used in a number of different ways. In the broadest sense, green power refers to environmentally preferable energy and energy technologies, both electric and thermal. This definition of green power includes many types of power:

  • solar photovoltaic systems.
  • wind turbines.
  • fuel cells for automobiles.

Green power refers specifically to electricity generated from a subset of renewable resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydroelectric sources. These electricity sources are derived from natural resources that replenish themselves over short periods of time, including the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (biomass), and the Earth’s heat (geothermal).
3. Note that the terms green power, environmentally preferable, clean power, and renewable energy may be used in slightly different ways, which differ primarily according to the varying assessments of the environmental impacts of harnessing specific resources and of the relative significance of each impact. The exact definitions of these terms, while always important, take on added significance when dealing with state and federal government requirements or determining eligibility for government and utility incentives.
4. The Diccionario Español de la Energía (DEE) proposes ‘green electricity’ as the translation of the term electricidad verde. In most of the UK and US websites is possible to find green power instead of green electricity, which is not recorded in English dictionaries.
In Physics, power is defined as the rate of change in energy. However, in general context we use the term power to refer to the energy that can be produced by various means like mechanical, electrical, etc. Electricity is a form of energy that is produced by electrical means (flow of electrons). Thus, power can be used in context to various sources and methods of generating the energy, whereas electricity can only be used in context to electric power.
Electricity and power, can be confusing, because many times we use power in place of electricity and sometimes power is used to denote some other forms of energy too, apart from electricity.
5. Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. Customers often buy green power for avoided environmental impacts and its greenhouse gas reduction benefits.

  • Green power sources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no fossil-fuel based greenhouse gas emissions. EPA requires that green power sources must also have been built within the last 15 years in order to support “new” renewable energy development.
  • Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (eligible biomass), and the earth’s heat (geothermal). Although the impacts are small, some renewable energy technologies have an impact on the environment. For example, large hydroelectric resources can have environmental trade-offs associated with issues such as fisheries and land use.
  • Conventional power includes the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and the nuclear fission of uranium. Fossil fuels have environmental costs from mining, drilling, or extraction, and emit greenhouse gases and air pollution during combustion. Although nuclear power generation emits no greenhouse gases during power generation, it does require mining, extraction, and long-term radioactive waste storage.

6. The European Green Electricity Network (EUGENE) label provides a guarantee that a green power scheme is displacing polluting energy sources and resulting in new green electricity generation over and above national-mandated markets. Under EUGENE criteria, green electricity must come from natural energy sources such as solar, geothermal, wind, tidal, and wave power; burning of “carbon-neutral” biomass, (for example energy crops, agriculture and forestry waste, other organic waste, and sewage gas); or hydroelectricity schemes that preserve the river system’s principal ecological functions. New or expanded hydroelectricity plants can only be labelled as green if they substantially improve the ecology of the river system, in excess of any legal compliance requirements.
Note that not all non-traditional energy sources are considered green by EUGENE. For example, electricity coming from new types of power stations that still have a high burden on the environment will not receive the EUGENE label. Such power stations include waste incineration installations, which often burn non-renewable sources such as plastic, produce toxic emissions, and undermine recycling policies.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=electric&allowed_in_frame=0; OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=power; MW – http://beta.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power (last access: 11.12.2015). 2, 3, 5. EPA – http://www3.epa.gov/greenpower/documents/purchasing_guide_for_web.pdf.; http://www3.epa.gov/greenpower/gpmarket/ (last access: 11.12.2015). 4. DEE p. 265. 6. WWF – http://www.wwf.mg/?2695/Green-electricity-that-really-is-green (last access: 11.12.2015).
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CR: charging pool, electrical energy, electricity, greenhouse effect, green hydrogen, hydrogen refuelling station, photovoltaic module, renewable energy, waste