Here’s how to buy renewable energy from your electric utility

However, the option isn’t necessarily available to all homeowners and renters. It also often comes with a slight price premium, experts said.

Renewable energy sources — including wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass — accounted for about 21% of U.S. electricity generation in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Most, 60%, came from fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. These energy sources release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming.

The White House aims for electricity generation to be free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

A growing number of individuals and organizations are opting to shift away from fossil fuels: About 9.6 million customers bought 273 Terawatt hours of renewable energy through voluntary green power markets in 2022, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That’s up fivefold from 54 TWh in 2012.

In the voluntary market, customers buy renewable energy in amounts that exceed states’ minimum requirements from utility companies. Over half of U.S. states have policies to raise the share of electricity sourced from renewables, though most targets are years away.

Voluntary purchases accounted for 28% of the renewable energy market (excluding hydropower) as of 2016, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. They help increase overall demand for renewable electricity, thereby driving change in the energy mix, the EPA said.

The bulk of the increase is from corporations, according to NREL estimates. Residential sales have grown, too, but more slowly.

Just one in six U.S. adults know that they may have the option to buy renewable power, either from their electric company or another provider, according to most recent NREL survey data on the topic, published in 2011.

“The market does continue to grow every year in terms of sales and customers,” said Jenny Sumner, group manager of modeling and analysis at NREL, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.

“But very few people are aware” they can opt in to green programs, she said. “It’s just not something that’s top of mind for most people.”

Power companies may offer “green pricing programs,” for instance.

Customers in these programs — also known as utility green power programs — pay their utility a “small premium” to get electricity from renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

The cost generally exceeds that of a utility’s standard electricity service by about 1 to 2 cents per kilowatt hour, Sumner said.

That may roughly translate to about $5 to $15 more per month, Sumner said. It will ultimately depend on factors like program price and household energy use, she added.

Nearly half of Americans, 47%, said they were willing to pay more to get their electricity from 100% renewable sources, according to a 2019 poll by Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communication. On average, they said they would be willing to pay $33.72 more per month.

Green power marketing programs

Consumers in some states can also opt into “green power marketing programs.”

Such states have “competitive” energy markets, meaning consumers can choose from among many different companies to generate their power. (Unlike with “green pricing programs,” the company generating the renewable power may not be the customer’s utility, which distributes the power.)

Residential green power options are available in these states with competitive (also known as “deregulated”) markets: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia, according to the U.S. Energy Department and EPA.

These also tend to come with a premium, though in some regions they “may be price competitive with default electricity options,” the agencies wrote.

Community choice aggregation

With “community choice aggregation” programs, local governments buy power from an alternative green power supplier on behalf of their residents.

The municipality essentially operates as the supplier for the community’s electricity, Sumner said. These programs are especially prevalent in California, she said.

Unlike the other program types, residents generally don’t have to opt in to community choice programs; it’s typically automatic and consumers can opt out if they wish, Sumner said.