Thirty cents a day. That's about how much it costs to eliminate a big chunk of your personal carbon emissions and send a message to your utility that you want renewable energy powering your home instead of the fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

In New Mexico we can choose wind power — Public Service Company of New Mexico calls it Sky Blue — to provide most of our electricity usage. PNM residential customers can buy it in blocks of 100 kilowatt hours for $1.80 per block, or they can choose the maximum, 90 percent of their monthly consumption. Businesses can also purchase up to 90 percent.

It costs just a little more: For the average household, buying the maximum
90 percent would cost about $9 more per month, according to PNM spokesman Jeff Buell. That's about 30 cents a day. (PNM makes the same profit from Sky Blue as from its general power program, Buell said; the premium covers the company's extra cost for wind).

Other New Mexico power providers, including Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities, Xcel Energy, El Paso Electric and quite a few electric cooperatives, also offer various types of renewable energy for similar premiums. Go to www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower to see a list or find out if you can buy green power in another state.

The option to buy renewable energy is now available in most states. Choosing "green power," as it's commonly referred to, lowers carbon emissions and makes a market impact by showing power companies that their customers will pay for clean energy.

Scientists warn that we must reduce global carbon-dioxide emissions soon or irreversible and dangerous climate change will result. Since the wind energy replaces the fossil fuels responsible for much of those emissions, buying just one monthly $1.80 block of wind energy for a year keeps as much carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as driving your car 1,800 fewer miles, said PNM product developer Dan Drennan.

So far the reduction in carbon emissions from Sky Blue customers is the equivalent of taking 28,000 cars off the road, Drennan said. And because burning fossil fuels also produces air pollution that causes serious health problems, green power helps clean the air as well.

Of course, even a heaping helping of wind power isn't cause to buy six refrigerators or go crazy with a Vegas-size Christmas display. Since the program's cost is based on usage, less electricity use means less extra cost. And wind won't necessarily provide any one house's power, because all the power gets mixed together in the grid. But more wind energy and less polluting energy goes into the system for every participant.

"The best way to think about it is like a pool," Drennan said. "When people order wind power, they're contributing to a cleaner pool of electricity."

PNM buys the wind power from a New Mexico facility owned by Florida Power and Light and sells what PNM customers don't use. The facility has the capacity to serve about 90,000 average-size homes, Buell said, and Sky Blue has about 16,000 commercial and residential customers.

The wind energy also goes into PNM's larger power mix. Buell and Drennan said wind and other renewable sources make up 6 percent to 7 percent of the utility's output. The state requires that 10 percent of utilities' power be provided by renewables by 2011.

Sky Blue, incidentally, does not count toward that requirement because customers voluntarily pay a premium for it. So utilities will have to provide more and more renewable energy as the state requirement rises in coming years, on top of whatever customers demand through green-power programs. As more customers request green power, that energy pool will get cleaner and cleaner.

To sign up, call 1-888- 342-5766 or go to www.pnm.com/customers/sky_blue.htm.

Get some of that money back: Your bill will be a little higher if you order wind power, but it's not too hard to put that money back in your pocket — and further reduce emissions of greenhouse gases — by taking advantage of some of PNM's rebates and incentives for energy efficiency. Go to pnm.com/rebates to check it out. There's also a lot of advice there to help keep heating bills down this winter. At www.pnm.com/customers/my_home.htm there are how-to videos and print instructions on topics such as weather-stripping and caulking to seal costly leaks.

One incentive that's worth looking into now because of the sign-up bonus is the Power Saver program. If you have an air conditioner and are willing to be a degree or two warmer at times of peak summer demand, you can earn $25 a year, plus a one-time $30 bonus for signing up by Dec. 31. PNM installs a device on air conditioners that puts the unit in conservation mode for a few minutes each half-hour during times of heaviest use. To sign up, go to www.pnmpowersaver.com or call 1-866-471-7906.

Get a bulb, see the new center: The Southside Library opens its Environment Education Resource Center starting at 9 a.m. today.

There will be activities for kids, solar displays and short plays about global warming, and starting at noon, the Sierra Club and PNM will trade energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs for old incandescent bulbs, up to four per household. Fluorescents use about a fourth of the energy and last up to 10 times longer than traditional bulbs, and each one saves about 400 pounds of coal from being burned, according to the Sierra Club. The library is at the corner of Jaguar Road and Country Club Drive, and the event will last until 5 p.m.


Do you have suggestions, questions or comments? Write to mblaber@sfnewmexican.com.