The Best Green Services in Toronto

except for the fact that bullfrog power doesnt actually provide green anything...

All it does is charge you more to invest in building green infrastructure for power generation in the future, which, if the government was really serious about becoming green, should be done anyways.

@ALayton
You raise an interesting discussion, and you're right that if you switch to Bullfrog Power you will still get your electricity from the regular grid. However, according to Bullfrog, "We inject green power onto the Ontario grid to match the amount of power your home uses." That should reduce the amount of "dirty" energy produced, even if it technically still enters your home.

@A|Layton
What I find ironic is that your criticism of Bullfrog doubles as praise :)

Layton: "...if the government was really serious about becoming green..." So the theory is that we shouldn't be funding lower-impact power generation because the government will take care of it? Or because the government said they'd take care of it but won't really so that'll teach 'em? I don't get it.

As for charging more to invest in future generation, they do claim to have current suppliers. No guarantee that those suppliers will be meeting the actual demand of Bullfrog customers at any given minute, of course, but that's still different from not actually providing anything.

Bullfrog has also been audited to ensure that they actually provide enough power to cover their customer base. And they do promise that, should they run out of green "supplies," they will stop signing up customers until they can cover it.

While I'm a happy Bullfrog Power customer, it'd be nice if there was some way to support ALL carbon-free electricity sources, including nuclear and large-scale hydro-electricity. Gotta fight the battles you can, though.

@Joe
Bullfrog has a nice chart showing where our power comes from. I find it interesting that nearly 40% of Ontario power comes from nuclear sources, and another 20% from hydro, but not "low-impact" hydro. I think Bullfrog is firstly taking aim at the 37% coming from coal, oil, and gas. I suspect if that number falls under 5% it will be a lot harder for Bullfrog to make the case that their power is better than "regular" hydro and nuclear power.

I also find it ironic that we pay the Hydro bill when hydro sources account for under 25% of our power.

@Joshua:

Yeah, the coal, oil, and gas was the reason we switched to Bullfrog. I couldn't in good conscience have my money go to support destructive technologies like that. Sure, it's mostly a symbolic gesture, but then again, Bullfrog keeps announcing new wind power starts, so it's hard to complain!

@Joe: Nuclear is nowhere near as low-carbon as wind, run-of-river hydro and large-scale solar. All that mining & refining takes a lot of energy, not to mention the very sophisticated, concrete-heavy power plants.