You rent. You don’t have the money. You don’t have the time.

Sure, there are lots of excuses for not switching to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, especially when thinking about installing them in your own backyard.

But the days of going off the grid to support renewable energy are on their way out. Nowadays, wind farms feed energy directly into the grid, allowing people without their own turbine to use wind power, too.

This movement is still growing, but a new Seattle City Light program makes it possible for Seattleites to switch to renewable energy today. The Green Up program lets customers buy green power for a portion of their electricity, which in return helps decrease pollution and helps support the local renewable energy market.

Want to get started? Here’s what you need to do:

Decide how much you'll pay
Residents make voluntary payments of $3, $6 or $12, depending on what percentage of renewable energy they would like to use. Businesses can contribute at any level to earn Silver, Gold or Platinum Partner status.

Sign up
Head to SCL's website, give them a call at (206) 684-3000, or wait for the form that periodically comes in the mail concerning the Green Up program.

Here’s how it works:

Seattle City Light uses your Green Up dollars to buy Renewable Energy Credits. These credits help increase the amount of renewable energy entering the grid by helping cover the cost of production. Seattle City Lights explains it this way:

In most electricity markets, new clean, renewable energy costs more to produce than fossil fuel energy. This difference is primarily due to subsidies that fossil fuel industries receive. However, to remain competitive, renewable energy producers must sell their energy to the grid at conventional market prices. All electricity is the same once it hits the grid, so traditionally consumers have not seen any reason to pay more when fossil fuel energy turns on the lights the same way that wind energy does.

By purchasing a REC (through Green Up) to cover your energy consumption, you are paying the difference between market rate and the production rate, allowing more clean power producers to enter the competitive marketplace.

By paying a little more on your bill to support renewable energy, you are helping to even out the energy playing field, decrease pollution (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and particulate matter) and increase the economic benefit to rural communities that are often the homes to these technologies.

To Sweeten the Deal
Sign up now and Seattle City Light and local sweetshop THEO Chocolate will send you a free organic, Fair Trade certified chocolate bar and a two-for-one admission coupon for the THEO Chocolate factory tour located in Fremont. (This deal ends July 31, 2008, or while supplies last.)

The Green Up program is Green-e certified and fulfills LEED Project green power requirements.

Photo credit: stock xchange, Seattle City Light