A time of renewables

Renewable energy interconnects members, YEC and power providers.

A new year  finds us recharg­ing our com­mit­ment to renew­able ener­gy at YEC. It’s some­thing we can all feel good about.

YEC mem­bers who pur­chase renew­able Green Pow­er can be espe­cial­ly proud: Clover Mid­dle School, we recent­ly learned, may become our sec­ond local Green Pow­er Solar School in 2013, join­ing Spring­field Mid­dle School. Statewide, Green Pow­er pur­chas­es have helped fund almost two dozen Solar Schools in coop­er­a­tive-served areas.

Like Spring­field, Clover Mid­dle will receive a two-kilo­watt solar pow­er sys­tem that will pro­vide hands-on learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. Stu­dents will study a spe­cial renew­able ener­gy cur­ricu­lum that meets S.C. sci­ence stan­dards. These dynam­ic lessons empow­er our youth and ener­gize our future.

All-natural megawatts

It’s all-nat­ur­al inter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty. State-owned San­tee Coop­er, the ulti­mate source of much of the pow­er that inde­pen­dent co-ops like YEC dis­trib­ute to mem­bers, has built an impres­sive Green Pow­er gen­er­at­ing port­fo­lio. It now includes six land­fill gen­er­at­ing sta­tions, four solar arrays and one wind tur­bine. The land­fill sta­tions har­ness nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring methane from biode­grad­ing waste as a fuel, pow­er­ing more than 30 megawatts of renew­able ener­gy. Green Pow­er sup­port­ers, you built that!

Sev­en­ty S.C. home­own­ers, includ­ing 21 YEC mem­bers, cur­rent­ly par­tic­i­pate in a solar ther­mal demon­stra­tion project. In 2011, their homes were retro­fit­ted with ener­gy-effi­cient solar water-heat­ing tech­nolo­gies as part of a pilot project aimed at help­ing co-op mem­bers deter­mine the costs and ben­e­fits of res­i­den­tial solar hot-water sys­tems.

Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, pow­er-sup­ply aggre­ga­tor for YEC and 19 oth­er S.C. co-ops, is still col­lect­ing infor­ma­tion for this project.

Our November/December mag­a­zine high­light­ed how Cen­tral is col­lab­o­rat­ing with the City Cen­ter Part­ner­ship in Colum­bia lend­ing its all-elec­tric Nis­san Leaf for tri­al use in a shut­tle pro­gram to test the reli­a­bil­i­ty and cost sav­ings of elec­tric vehi­cles.

Since 2008, YEC has been study­ing elec­tric vehi­cle tech­nol­o­gy through research and test­ing and has cor­rob­o­rat­ed with Duke Ener­gy on their plans and data col­lec­tion. YEC installed a Lev­el 2 charg­ing sta­tion where elec­tric-car dri­vers can charge up, free of charge. And, we did­n’t stop there: YEC is in the process of devel­op­ing an over­all elec­tric vehi­cle plan to include beta sites for in-home charg­ers and spe­cial elec­tric rates to encour­age vehi­cle charg­ing on non-peak times. After all, they help low­er pow­er costs for our entire mem­ber­ship.

Help yourself

Mutu­al ben­e­fits are what co-ops are all about. That’s why you’ll find a whole new sec­tion of our web­site focus­ing on alter­na­tive forms of ener­gy and renew­ables.

Elec­tric co-ops sup­port the use of a wide range of fuels for our elec­tric pow­er, reduc­ing costs and keep­ing rates low. Today, a “fifth fuel” joins coal, nat­ur­al gas, nuclear and renewables—energy effi­cien­cy. That is, when we all con­serve ener­gy, we won’t need to pro­duce as much.

YEC helps mem­bers use ener­gy wise­ly. At YorkElectric.net, our Ener­gy Sav­ings pro­grams and tips fea­ture promi­nent­ly. And take a look at that new renew­ables sec­tion, won’t you? Learn how you can help your­self, future gen­er­a­tions and our envi­ron­ment, here and now.

Thanks and more Green Pow­er to you in 2013!