Alberta's electricity is mostly coal-fired. And coal is the enemy of the human race. So what is a green Edmontonian to do?

The first, most profitable and greenest thing you can do is to reduce your energy use. The easiest ways to do that, all of which have better paybacks than most any mutual fund, include lighting with only compact fluorescent bulbs, replacing your 15-year old refrigerator with a new energy efficient model, and plugging your consumer electronics into power strips to that they don't suck juice while they're turned off. We'll cover all of these actions in future posts.

Besides reducing your electricity use, you can green your electricity source.

In Edmonton, one way to do that is to buy wind power from BullFrog Power.

Wind power is the cheapest renewable energy source besides large hydro installations. The problem is, it's not windy enough in the Edmonton area to make it worthwhile to put up a 1.5 million dollar wind turbine. Luckily, Southern Alberta has one of the best wind regimes in the world. Down there it's windy about 30% of the time, which is an exceptional amount for wind turbines.

The bullfrog power website answers the common questions like How do I know that the volume of green electricity I purchase is really being delivered to the grid? and Are wind turbines dangerous to birds? on its excellent FAQ.

Of course, since wind power is intermittent and the wind turbines aren't located near Edmonton, you're really paying them to produce as much clean electricity as you're using in dirty electricity. Their clean power offsets your dirty coal burning. It's not ideal, but it's a huge step towards cleaning up this dirty power grid of ours.

I've heard several prominent Alberta-based environmentalists state unequivocally that buying green electricity is the best thing you can do to slow climate change. It's a really green way to spend $10/month in Edmonton.