First, a tiny note: When I log in to write a post, the first thing I do is check the comments page, mostly because there are so many spams that I have to delete them quickly or they pile up. How annoying! But gracious thanks to the real comment posters (that’s you, Evan!), whose fun blurbs are bright light in all that spam.

Ok, now on with it:

Here in Germany, purchasing household electricity is a bit different than what we’re used to. We’ve just paid the first bill, so it’s on our minds now.

First, unlike anywhere else I’ve lived, one has many options when choosing electric companies, meaning you can find the cheapest and most appropriate one for you; also meaning one company does not have what amounts to monopoly on a given region. (But if you don’t speak the language, trying to find the best company is a bit difficult. Oh, our lives greatly improve with each hour I study!)

Once a customer selects an electricity provider, a summary statement is sent and they fiddle with something behind the scenes to send the juice. The statement is essentially your bill for the next year, wherein the average use the previous year is averaged on a monthly payment. If the customer did not live in that residence the previous year, the average is from the previous tenant. Then this average is what is paid monthly. If it happens that you use less electricity than the average estimated, you receive a refund when the meter is read at the end of the year.

The same sanario is true for heating and hot water, which are separate from electricity, and are generated either for the residential building or at a regional heating facility. We pay our heat and hot water (called “Warm”) to our landlord and again may receive a refund at the end of the year.

All of this may be quite convenient for the companies, who don’t have to read meters each month, and paying the same amount each time is nice, but what it boils down it is that, since we only know how much electricity we use in a year, we really have no idea how much we use each month or each day, and how what we do (turning off lights, etc.) affects our bill.

A Germany company has solved this problem for some, with a website that shows up to the minute usage. To hear the Deutsche Welle (English language) radio story, click here and click “Audios and Videos on the Topic” at the bottom of the page.

As for the source of the electricity, most electricity here is generated from atomic and coal fired plants, which together account for 77% of power. That’s a lot of dirtiness! Traditionally, Germany has favored atomic energy as an alternative to coal, and because it does not emit carbon, it is even called environmentally friendly to some. Then, for a while, public opinion swayed away from atomic energy, given its incredible environmental and human risk, the possibility of extreme accident. But in the last several years, it has grown back into favor, because of its lack of carbon and the independence it brings from foreign oil and gas. Last year (I think), a massive series of underground caves and tunnels was created to house all the waste from French, Austrian, and German nuclear power plants. My guess is it will become more popular after the drama with Russia/Ukraine this winter.

But now I’ve just discovered Greenpeace Energy, after reading the website of a commune here in Germany, which is, by the way, a great English concession, given that most German sites offer only a few words in English. Not, of course, that they ought to provide more, but it is convenient for me when they do. On the site, they mentioned that they buy their power from Greenpeace Energy. Woo, Greenpeace Energy?!

It’s a collective energy company that sources only green power, mostly from water (hydroelectric), with a small amount of wind, solar, and biomass. The company is associated with Greenpeace, and I think it operates only in Germany (must learn more German to find out!), and they provide on their site a source-list, updated every 15 minutes, of electricity currently running into homes, as well as monthly and weekly customer usage charts.

So, wonderful! There are probably more green power providers, but this is simple, and I’ll certainly be reading more and finding out how to switch.

Now off to the real writing. Got to get to work!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 8:14 am and is filed under Environmental Issues, Hamburg, Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.