NStar customers can power homes with wind power
NStar customers willing to pay a premium will soon be able to power their homes with environmentally friendly wind power.
The state Department of Public Utilities last night approved a program, that allows customers to buy half or all of their electricity from wind farms in Maine and upstate New York. Customers who opt for the green power will pay more, $4.25 a month who buy half their electricity from wind farms, $7.25 who want buy it all from these green sources, according to NStar. The program, called NStar Green, is the first of its kind for a Massachusetts utility,
NStar will begin enrolling customers in NStar Green immediately, with service to begin in July, said spokeswoman Caroline Allen. More information is available on NStar's website, www.nstar.com, or by calling 1-800-592-2000.
NStar, with 1.1 million electric customers in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, proposed the program last summer. The Boston utility signed 10-year contracts with two wind farms to buy a total of 60 megawatts, enough to power about 60,000 homes.
“What makes this program unique is the fact that it’s transparent -- customers know exactly where their renewable energy is being generated," said Thomas J. May, NStar chief executive.
Environmentalists praised the program and the decision by the Department of Public Utilities.
“Millions of Massachusetts residents will now have the option to support the development of clean, renewable energy in New England,” said Sue Reid a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, one of several prominent environmental groups that worked with NStar to create NStar Green. "The long-term contracts that are at the heart of this initiative are key catalysts to bringing renewable energy on-line and are a prime example of how we can use market mechanisms to combat climate change.”
(By Robert T. Gavin, Globe staff)
