The Statesman recently published an editorial piece in which Tom Smith, the director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, took the PUC (Public Utility Commission) and ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) to task. In his column, he argues that there are better alternative to dealing with Texas’ increasing business electricity demand than the regulatory changes the PUC approved earlier this summer, raising the Power Balance Penalty Cap and System High Cap to $4500 with additional increases scheduled to push the cap as high as $9000 by 2015.

He named two specific options: conservation (which our post earlier this week addressed) and renewable energy sources, such as solar power and wind generation.

Solar power is a viable option for Texas. As Smith points out, a “recent Brattle Group report found that if we [Texans] had built and paid for 5,000 megawatts of solar power, Texans would have saved $520 million last year on their electricity bills. Texas has lots of sunshine, and it comes to us daily without a fuel charge.” Indeed, we’re not short on sunshine in Texas, but it’s worth pointing out that solar power does have some limitations. One, it’s expensive. Solar panels are costly, both to purchase and to install. Two, solar panels only benefit us during the day. At night, they generate no electricity at all.

In addition to sunshine, Texas has a fair amount of wind. Currently, Texas is the leading state when it comes to wind development. However, like solar energy, there is a drawback to wind: creating transmission lines to deliver the energy from where it is generated (often in rural areas) to those who most need it.

Renewable energy options, like solar power and wind generation, are referred to as “green energy”. They represent a low impact on the environment. As technology advances, we will almost certainly find more efficient ways to harness green energy, making it a more common generation source in the future.

While this is interesting, you may be wondering what it has to do with your business electricity account. A lot, actually.

First, you’ll likely hear more about green energy in the coming years as Texas searches for the best alternatives to meet its growing commercial electricity demand. And second, many organizations place a high value on “green” business operations. If your company is looking for ways to lower your impact on the environment, you should know that there are green energy options available to meet your business electricity needs. Many providers offer products, rate plans and contracts that focus on green energy production. In fact, you can opt for a contract that utilize renewable energy resources for most or even all of your commercial electricity.

At Live Energy, we want to help you find the product, provider, contract and rate that best fits your organization. Whatever your chief concern—lowering your overall business electricity costs, or lowering your impact on the environment—our team of energy experts is here to help guide you to the best possible solution. We’ve been helping businesses just like yours develop energy strategies that match their needs and values for more than a decade, and we’d like to help you.

To find out more about how Live Energy can work with you to find the business electricity solution that is the perfect fit for your organization, call us today at (888) 341-9155.