This fall, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) and Clean Currents are urging  the D.C. City Council to clean up the District’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and to promote the cleanest sources of energy — wind and solar.

Thirty states in the US have Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). The RPS mandates that utilities purchase a certain percentage of renewable energy, generally ranging from 1% – 20% of their fuel mix. These standards help bring more clean energy online and establish a more secure market for clean energy development.

Currently, the DC RPS classifies old, high-emission black liquor and inefficient wood waste under their Tier 1 renewable energy standard. Therefore, these old, dirty sources of power are attributed to the RPS. Several Mid-Atlantic States, including Delaware and New Jersey, already get over 70% of their renewable energy portfolios from wind and solar power. However, the opposite is true for DC. For the past seven years, black liquor and wood waste made up 68% of DC’s RPS. Only 12% came from wind and solar power.
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Our Mission: 

Energize communities for a clean energy future by enabling individuals and businesses to make responsible choices that protect their bottom line while reducing their environmental impact.

Our Core Principles:

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Engage at the Community Level –

We are deeply involved with our customers, working in neighborhoods and in other local groups where we do business to promote a more sustainable lifestyle and build strong green-minded communities. We want to be an energy supplier that offers not only green energy but also a customer experience unmatched by other companies.

Profit but with a Purpose of Selling Exclusively Green – 

Unlike other companies that make most of their money by selling polluting power, we only focus on green power.
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In Annapolis you’ll find a bed & breakfast that combines 100 years of history with modern sustainability; and owner and proprietor Cory Bonney wouldn’t have it any other way. As a life long nature lover and photographer, Cory wanted the inn he purchased in 2000 to reflect his values as well.

Before its official opening as a B&B in 2002, there were a number of updates, upgrades, and expansions to make on the property. The building was previously a corner grocery store and home based business built at the turn of the 20th century. At the turn of the 21st century Cory began updating it for another type of home based business.

As part of the upgrades, Cory installed highly insulated windows and repurposed concrete siding and side boards to reduce the need for excessive heating or cooling of the house. The aluminum roof was coated with 20-year paint, a more durable, long term option. Cory took advantage of the strides forward in energy efficient household appliances, including replacing all the old inefficient incandescent light bulbs, using 5 zoned programmable thermostats for the air conditioning, and modern high efficiency washer and dryer units.
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Over the past several months, Clean Currents has hosted Lots of Power — an initiative bringing together students and professional designers and architects to develop innovative concepts for specific vacant lots in Kensington. Two winning projects were recently chosen and profiled in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This fall, they will come to life — transforming two lots from vacant to vibrant.

Below Gary Skulnik, Clean Currents President, reflects on Kensington and the Lots of Power program.

First the factories closed down, and the families of those workers moved out along with the jobs. Kensington is no longer the thriving Philadelphia neighborhood it once was. However, like the first shoots of a new tree sprouting in a forest devastated by wildfire, hope is returning slowly, but strong and determined. Clean Currents’ Lots of Power program is a small contribution to the momentum of a community set in motion. We hope it will add sparks to a new wave of life and positive change in this community while preserving the character and the nature of the place its current residents call home.
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A few weeks ago, I interviewed Ben Fiske, the General Manager for Bedrock Billiards in Adams Morgan, to write a blog post about their impressive reduction in energy usage. After hearing about their upgrades and some of the rebate programs they used, I did some research on the DC Sustainable Energy Utility website. After finding the links I needed about their commercial rebates, I found myself poking around the “residential” section.

At the time, I was about to move into a new house so I was curious what I could do to improve my new place’s energy efficiency and lower my electric bill. Although as a renter I’m not likely to make a large purchase for my house like a new refrigerator or washing machine, I did pass on the information to my landlord so that if he was thinking of upgrading anything soon, he’d be able to save money (and hopefully keep my rent low).

The one place I could immediately make an impact was by replacing the lighting in the house. Lighting accounts for about 20% of electricity use for the year. I wanted to get LED bulbs because of their great light, instant-on feature, low energy use, and long life, but since they are a relatively new technology, I was worried they would be very expensive.
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This month we feature Clean Currents solar thermal customers the Baremore family of Silver Spring, MD. They decided to install a solar thermal system on their home about a year ago. Now they share their experience with us.

What is something, beyond being a Clean Currents solar thermal customer, that you do in an effort to live a greener life?

We’re always looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact. Some of the things we do include:

• Ride bikes, walk or take mass transit instead of driving
• Drive a hybrid car and carpool whenever possible
• Sign up for Clean Currents wind power!
• Turn the thermostat up a couple of degrees in the summer to reduce cooling and down a couple of degrees in the winter to reduce heating
• Eat a lot of vegetables

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Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of visiting a wind farm with colleagues from Clean Currents. We visited Highland North Wind Farm in Cambria County, PA and boy was it cool! At Clean Currents, we sell two products. National Wind and Neighborhood Wind. All of our Neighborhood Wind comes from Highland North Wind Farm.

Our visit started at the farm’s headquarters where Brad, the site manager, gave us a rundown of his day-to-day overseeing the turbines and keeping things running smoothly. He’s armed with high-tech software that lets him adjust the turbines in real time and a team of engineers ready for dispatch at a moment’s notice. He even has an app on his phone that lets him shut off a turbine on the fly.

After we got a peek into a day in the life of Brad, we hopped in our cars and drove into the heart of the farm. Highland North has 30 wind turbines (not wind mills, as Brad pointed out — those grind flour) and these 30 turbines have blades that are over 300 feet in diameter (almost as long a football field). Together, these 30 turbines produce enough electricity to power approximately 18,000 homes each year.

As we all know, the government is currently shutdown. But, once those 700,000 federal employees are back to their regular grind, things will pick up right where they left off (well, we hope). So, we’re digging into the EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards for new power plants.

On September 20th, 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed carbon-pollution standards for future coal and natural gas power plants. This was the EPA’s first step in moving forward on President Obama’s Climate Action Plan announced this past June. Currently, about one third of all greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S. comes from electricity generation at power plants.

When presenting the EPA’s proposal, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy commented “Climate Change is one of the most significant public health challenges of our time. By taking commonsense action to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, we can slow the effects of climate change and fulfill our obligation to ensure a safe and healthy environment for our children.”
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McCabe’s Restaurant in Hampden is taking on sustainable dining one dish at a time. After reading a review on Yelp which described McCabe’s as having “…soul of a West Village gastropub”, we had to learn more. We sat down with Cora Flynn, General Manager to discover all the different ways this Hampden gem is embracing sustainable dining.

CC: Why did you think it was important to support clean, renewable wind energy?

CF: We feel it is important to support clean, renewable wind energy because we are invested in the future for our children and would like them to live in an environment that is healthy and viable.  Choosing a sustainable resource is just one way in which we feel we are reducing our impact globally and locally.

CC: Why did you pick Clean Currents?

CF: We chose Clean Currents because it is community oriented, an environmentally responsible choice and it was surprisingly affordable.
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Teams made up of teens and design professionals from throughout the Philadelphia region

Two winners have been chosen in “Lots of Power,” an initiative sponsored by wind power company Clean Currents  focused on one of Philadelphia’s greatest problems, vacant lots. Over a six-week period, five teams of high-school age students and professional designers and architects have developed innovative concepts for specific vacant lots in Kensington.  The two winning concepts–one chosen by a panel of jurors, and another by the public, via social media–will receive a grant provided by Clean Currents to be implemented.

“Lots of Power came directly from conversations that we had with Philadelphia residents, many of whom named vacant land as one of the largest problems in their communities,” said Gary Skulnik, President of Clean Currents. “We had five outstanding concepts submitted, and we are confident that the winning concepts will help transform their neighborhoods in a way that benefits everyone.”

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