How Would You Define Green Power?

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 tech-nologies, both electric and thermal. This definition of green power includes many types of power, from solar photovoltaic systems to wind turbines to fuel cells for auto-mobiles.  In this guide, 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). 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.
Helping Consumers Identify Green Power
To help consumers more easily identify green power products, the “Green-e Energy” certification program has coordinated
the development of market-based, consensus definitions for environmentally preferable renewable electricity and renew-
able energy certificates (RECs). The Green-e Energy program, administered by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions,
certifies and verifies renewable energy products offered in competitive electricity markets, sold in utility green pricing
programs, and sold in national markets for RECs.