Wind Power

HoCo Climate Action is encouraging residents to join a local community solar project rather than renewing or signing up for a higher-cost wind power plan through a retail energy supplier. With community solar, you can directly support a local, clean electrical grid in Maryland and clean jobs while saving on your current utility rates. 

For many years, we promoted and partnered with Groundswell, a progressive nonprofit that negotiated discount rates with WGL, a retail energy supplier, for wind power. Groundswell has discontinued this program and is instead working with community solar and other solar programs. Wind power plans, through retail energy suppliers, do not necessarily encourage the production of new wind farms as intended, so we no longer support this model as currently implemented and priced.

If you are already paying for renewable energy (typically wind) through a third-party supplier such as WGL, we recommend that you do not renew your higher-cost wind supplier contract and cancel it. Please call your utility or current energy supplier for your best options. BGE current rates to compare. 

To learn more about the issues with "renewable energy" through retail energy suppliers, please read this report and view a video created by Laurel Peltier, chair of the Maryland Energy Advocates coalition.

• Digital Book: Retail Energy’s Greenwashing: How Virtual Certificates Became “100% Renewable” Electricity  

• The YouTube is embedded in the digital book.

If you have any questions or need more detailed information, contact us at hococlimateaction@gmail.com