Safeway and Wind Energy
As I was getting gas last night at the new Safeway Fuel gas station in Bristow, VA, I noticed a sign posted saying that Safeway Fuel stations run on 100% Wind-generated electricity. How odd, I thought, for a petroleum dispenser to run off natural energy sources. Sounds good in theory, though. Seems like it’s a good idea to use renewable, natural energy sources whenever possible, so I went ahead and checked out the website that was posted on the sign.
I wondered how they could get electricity from a different place than every other home, business, etc. around. It’s not like there are any huge windmills in the vicinity, and it wouldn’t be feasible to run a direct electric line from wherever they DO have huge windmills to this little gas station. According to the Safeway Green Power FAQ, they pay for the wind energy facilities to deliver an amount of electricity to the electricity grid (the power delivery grid that everyone is connected to), equal to the amount of electricity used by all of the Safeway Fuel stations, corporate offices, and San Francisco Stores.
I hope others will follow their lead, unless there’s some negative aspect of this that their information website is neglecting to mention. I didn’t find anything negative with a quick google search, though. For now, I’m just happy that they built a gas station closer to my house, which often has the cheapest gas around (especially with a 3 cents/gallon discount with your Safeway card, or a 6 cents/gallon discount with a prior grocery purchase of $50 or more). Not bad.
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