Countries around the world and individual states and regions are establishing renewable energy infrastructures and setting up 100% renewable energy targets (and some have already reached their 100% renewable targets).

Countries around the world and individual states and regions are establishing renewable energy infrastructures and setting up 100% renewable energy targets (and some have already reached their 100% renewable targets). Costs are dropping in power generation and storage tech, and many regions are even seeing cheaper costs for green energy. Even companies are jumping on the green wagon, not just for PR but also because it now makes financial sense.

In the last 10 years, large tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft have made headlines by quickly establishing 100% renewable energy infrastructures to power their massive data centers. In addition, this stance towards using clean energy has trickled down to many of their suppliers, who have also vowed to use renewable energy from sources like solar or wind power.

Even at a local level, many small to medium businesses and residential consumers have been switching to renewable energy. With the deregulation of electricity markets, consumers in almost 20 states can choose to use any electric provider in their area; which has opened up a new option of signing up with an ESCO (or energy service company) that provides renewable energy.

Mpower Energy, a leading ESCO that provides 100% renewable energy to consumers in the north east, has seen a trend of businesses and consumers switching to renewable energy at a massive increase. Consumers in New York City have been huge advocates for switching to green energy. According to Lavie Popack, CEO of Mpower Energy, "businesses and consumers really love being able to make a difference by switching to green energy. With over 220,000 small businesses in NYC, if only 10% switched to renewable energy, that would be the annual equivalent of over 81 million trees planted and almost 3.5 billion pounds of CO2 that is offset (based on the average energy output by a business)."

The PR benefit to businesses like Google by going green (who is the largest corporate renewable energy purchaser by a landslide), is a no-brainer; couple that with a dropping cost in renewables (which in many cases is now cheaper than fossil fuel sources), and you have a climate where hundreds of businesses are being environmentally conscious by making the switch. Mpower Energy has even offered a "Business Spotlight" on their Mpower Energy Facebook page that promotes businesses that have switched to green energy with them. Lavie Popack said "the Business Spotlight puts the focus on these businesses to customers in their area. It shows people that they care about making a difference on the environment."