FirstEnergy has announced that FirstEnergy Solutions has launched SmartWind, a wind energy product for commercial and industrial customers. With the SmartWind program, FirstEnergy Solutions' electric generation customers can purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from wind farms in western Pennsylvania and contracted to FirstEnergy Solutions. SmartWind allows commercial and industrial electric generation customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan to help support wind technology for producing electricity.
"SmartWind enables our generation customers to support the production of electricity using wind power," says Charles E. Jones, president of FirstEnergy Solutions. "This program is an extension of our commitment to provide electricity in an environmentally responsible manner."
When a renewable energy generator – for example, a wind farm – produces one megawatt hour of electricity that is certified and sold into the wholesale electricity market, it also produces a REC. While customers will not receive any additional electricity as a result of their SmartWind purchase, they are helping to sustain a market for the environmental attributes of renewable power generation.
To show its support of renewable energy, FirstEnergy Solutions also will purchase RECs equal to 100 percent of the energy used at its Akron headquarters through the end of 2008.
