We know we have green choices about food, methods of transportation and waste, but now Nova Scotians also have a choice about power. Bullfrog Power, started in Ontario in 2005, is a company certified by Environment Canada as 100 percent green that puts power from wind farms and low-impact hydro facilities into the regional grid.
“It’s just an environmental choice in an area that we’re not used to taking it,” says president Tom Heintzman, “but it’s a really important area.” Consumers who sign up with Bullfrog pay an added fee on top of their standard power bill for the energy they use to come from renewable sources.
Rebecca Baxter of Rosebay, Lunenburg County signed up her home business with Bullfrog Power. She believes “to make an impact you need to have a lot of people on board” and sees this energy option as “as step in the right direction.” Although her friends think it’s a bit silly to pay the two cents extra per kilowatt hour, Baxter feels like it’s worth it to know that she’s not using power that pollutes.
Sign up for this service and you’ll not only be increasing the demand for renewable energy but promoting awareness.What Nova Scotia needs are “a lot of people really excited and really eager about renewable power,” says Baxter.
Shawna Henderson of St. Margaret’s Bay is another Bullfrog Power customer. She owns Befreehomes Design Limited, which focuses on energy efficiency in homes and decreasing energy loads. For Henderson, signing up to Bullfrog was “pretty much a no-brainer.”
Personally, and as a professional, she felt the need to be “walking the walk and talking the talk and putting [her] money where [her] beliefs are.” She’s already very conscious of energy efficiency in her home; she tells her children if they’re cold to put a sweater on before turning up the heat, but paying the extra amount gives yet another “impetus to push the household further.”
Heintzman believes “people can influence the world.” A lot of what we read about “environment issues and meetings between governments. . . seems so disempowering and as if an individual can’t have any control or influence.”
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2010.
While I agree that Bullfrog helps create awareness, it does nothing to reduce emissions in Nova Scotia, or increase demand for renewable energy.
Bullfrog is essentially a marking campaign, rather than a renewable energy campaign. Their customers are foolish to think they are getting their power from anything other than good ol’ NS Power. People that think that being “Bullfrog Powered” means that renewable energy from PEI or Ontario magically appears in their home or business are grossly mistaken.
I understood that the money you pay goes to investing in renewable energy infrastructure in your area/province, and the energy your home/business uses is then matched in renewable energy entered into the NSpower grid. No, your home doesn’t magically receive all-green power, but it increases the amount of green power into the grid, demonstrates demand for renewable energy, and invests in the infrastructure necessary for local renewable energy to expand.
Of course, the best thing we can all do, is to use as little energy possible, at all times – renewable or not.
For an additional 2 cents per kwh you can feel better about yourself. Or you could save that money and invest in some solar panels for your roof.
If you”re looking for efficent and conservation for energy check out these guys. Lots of incentives, tips, and Nova Scotians are paying for the programs on their power bill. This group is well on its way in reducing demand on the NS Power grid. Just one more way of offsetting emissons and costs for another coal fired power plant down the road.
http://www.efficiencyns.ca