Originally Posted by
Duffman
What’s an REC?
Also, when I talked about using the current grid I meant existing power and transmission lines. Not power plants. The idea is if the overall demand is reduced then they shut down power plants that run on combustibles.
How could adding solar, aside from the manufacturing process, produce CO2?
A REC is a Renewable Energy Certificate. It's basically an instrument to account for your production of renewable energy, added back to the grid. It depends on your electric company, but the gist of it is, when install solar on your house, your bill is reduced by the amount of excess energy you produce. In other words, your bill is cost shifted onto other customers, or the tax payers. However, this does not actually reduce carbon emissions, it just reduces the cost of your bill. Someday, if storage technology is invented(highly unlikely), then those panels will actually save GHGs. Until then, the increase in GHGs is due to the manufacturing of the panels.
If you want to reduce your carbon foot print, installing high efficiency appliances is a much better way.