CNBC
covered AEE Member Arcadia Power's efforts to help consumers access renewable energy resources while decreasing their electric bills by up to 20%, including commentary by AEE's CEO Nat Kreamer. Read excerpts below and the entire CNBC story here.
Christy Meurer wanted to do her part to fight climate change — and if she saved a few bucks, that would be nice, too. When the 41-year-old teacher from Missoula, Montana, went looking for a place to buy wind-generated electricity, she quickly found her way to a startup whose model may point the way to the future of U.S. power: Arcadia Power, which uses software to match clients with renewable-energy providers across the country.
Four-year-old Arcadia Power, based in Washington, D.C., was created to give consumers an easier way to connect with more than 40 of the hundreds of alternative electricity providers that have sprung up around the country, said CEO Kiran Bhatraju, a former aide to Kentucky Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth.
Most alternate providers produce wind or solar energy, often on a small scale, and connect with consumers through utilities, many of which allow, but do little to encourage, customers to buy electricity from alternative suppliers, or through brokers like Arcadia...
Arcadia’s experience is familiar to anyone who has bought a flight at Expedia.com or shopped for car insurance at sites like Progressive.com, which offer quotes from more than one airline or insurer, said Nat Kreamer, chief executive of the trade group Advanced Energy Economy.
If Arcadia has a renewable power-generating partner near where a consumer lives, they’ll make the match to the best deal and keep monitoring the customer’s account in case cheaper alternatives emerge...
If renewable power isn’t locally available, Arcadia will match the client to a conventional power source and buy for them a renewable-energy certificate, which finances new renewable-power projects that aim to save as much carbon as the client uses from power fired by fossil fuels...
“The interesting thing about Kiran’s business is that most people don’t think a lot about electricity,” said Kraemer, adding that Arcadia is among the top 10 sellers nationally of power not generated by utilities themselves. “They’ve built an experience that lets people take care of their power simply...″