Renewable Electricity Credits

As part of our commitment to our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, Boyne Resorts has purchased renewable energy credits (RECs). Purchasing RECs enables Loon Mountain Resort and all other Boyne Resorts to source our electric supply from 100% renewable energy. This is a crucial step for helping to progress towards our carbon neutral goal. We hope this first step will help show our company's commitment to the local and national environment.

What is a REC?

All energy sources produced are distributed on the power grid nationally whether it's renewable or not. These energy sources cannot be distinguished on the grid. A renewable energy credit (REC) represents a specific amount of energy produced to the power grid by renewable resources. This helps energy companies organize where this energy is going on paper.

To help visualize what a REC represents here's a handy scale of what you're purchasing when buying RECs:

1 REC = 1 megawatt-hour of renewable energy purchased

Boyne has purchased enough RECs to power all Boyne Resorts with 100% renewably source electricity. All resorts combined use many megawatt-hours, so they had to purchase a lot of RECs to make all of our resorts' electricity be renewable.

Why Are RECs Important, Economically and Environmentally?

Provides a source of revenue for renewable energy infrastructure. This creates opportunities for more clean energy supplied to the power grid and made available on the market for consumers.
Creates a more economically reliable source of energy for our resorts, by reducing our dependence on the unstable fossil fuel industry.
Increases the demand for renewables as our source of energy to lower our overall carbon footprint, by partially divesting from fossil fuels. This, therefore, reduces contributors to climate change and its direct negative impact on the ski industry.

This short video below from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, visualizes the function of the power grid, and how RECs relate to this process.