Cooperative environmental and life benefit exchange system

Abstract

A cooperative environmental and life benefit exchange system is presented. The system includes a grid for transmitting available electrical energy, a plurality of rate payers using energy generated from renewable energy sources, a plurality of utility companies providing the grid, a plurality of credits redeemable for acquiring one or more of a plurality of life benefits, and an administrator overseeing a redemption process. In one embodiment, credits are accumulated by the rate payers based on either a predetermined amount of electrical energy purchased from or sold back to the grid. In the redemption process the credits accumulated by the rate payers are redeemed at a redemption rate to provide a redemption value. The redemption value is remitted by the rate payers to satisfy benefit cost for acquiring the life benefits, or portions thereof.

1 . A cooperative environmental and life benefit exchange system, comprising:
 a grid network including a plurality of transmitting facilities for transmitting available electrical energy;   a plurality of rate payers using electrical energy generated from renewable energy sources, the rate payers include a first subset of rate payers that purchase their used electrical energy from the grid, and a second subset of rate payers having renewable energy generation systems for generating their used electrical energy and that sell surplus generated electrical energy back to the grid;   a plurality of utility companies cooperating to provide the grid network, the utility companies including a first subset of utility companies having renewable energy generation systems for generating electrical energy provided to the grid, and a second subset of utility companies that purchase the surplus electrical energy generated by the second subset of rate payers;   a plurality of credits that are accumulated by the plurality of rate payers, a value of each of the credits corresponding to a predetermined amount of electrical energy purchased from or sold back to the grid in energy purchase and sale transactions;   a plurality of life benefits each acquired at a benefit cost, wherein each of the life benefits provides a quality of life benefit to a rate payer or a beneficiary of the rate payer; and   an administrator having an interface for registering and tracking the plurality of credits within the exchange system, the interface determining an amount of credits assigned to each of the rate payers based on the energy purchase and sale transactions and supervising a redemption process wherein the credits accumulated by one or more of the plurality of rate payers are redeemed at a redemption rate to provide a redemption value, the redemption value being remitted by the one or more rate payers to satisfy the benefit cost for acquiring one or more of the life benefits, or portions thereof.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the renewable energy sources include at least one of solar, photovoltaic, wind, biomass, landfill gas, fuel cells, ocean thermal power, wave or tidal power, hydropower, selected municipal solid waste, and geothermal systems. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein one credit is allocated to one of the first subset of rate payers for each one kilowatt-hour (1 kWh) of renewable energy purchased by the one rate payer. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein one credit is allocated to one of the second subset of rate payers for each one kilowatt-hour (1 kWh) of renewable energy generated and sold back to the grid by the one rate payer. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the cooperative interface includes a data processing system having a data processor executing program instructions. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data processing system is operatively coupled to a data store. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the data store stores information including at least one or information for identifying rate payers, information for identifying utility companies, credit information, information regarding the energy purchase and sale transactions, information regarding benefits and benefit cost corresponding thereto, and redemption rate information. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the data store stores at least one of a variable representing a rate at which energy usage is converted to a credit, and a variable representing the redemption rate. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the administrator receives a value representing a number of the credits that are to be allocated to each of the rate payers as calculated individually by each of the utility companies. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of utility companies provide the administrator with information corresponding to the energy purchase and sale transactions conducted between the utility companies and the rate payers within a given period, and wherein the administrator calculates a value representing a number of credits that are to be allocated to each of the respective rate payers. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the life benefits include health insurance, life insurance, educational assistance, retirement savings, housing allowance, and food allowance. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein an insurance company provides or sponsors one or more of the life benefits. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , further including a plurality of accounts, the accounts being associated with one or more of the rate payers and receiving the redemption values of redeemed credits of the associated rate payers. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein a financial institution provides the plurality of accounts. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the interface includes a cooperative interface executing on a computer processing system of the administrator to host a plurality of web pages, the web pages being accessible in real-time by one or more of the rate payers and the utility companies for viewing a total number of credits held by rate payers, for monitoring a status of the redemption values, and for evaluating available life benefits.