State Programs Win Clean Energy Awards
Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) awarded five state clean energy programs with the inaugural State Leadership in Clean Energy Awards recently to the California Energy Commission's Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS), the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund's Clean Energy Communities Campaign, the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust's Solar Energy for Green Affordable Housing, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Solar Renewable Energy Certificate Program and Focus on Energy's Wisconsin Biogas Digestion Program.
"States have taken the lead in funding clean energy projects throughout the United States," said CESA Founder and President Lewis Milford. "We can honor their leadership with awards, but we can honor them best by using them as the most effective vehicles to deploy the economic stimulus to produce green collar jobs in our economy."
CESA also released a new report that highlights its national database of 50,000 state funded renewable energy projects. The projects in the database have a capacity of 1.7 gigawatts and generate 5.3 million megawatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power 500,000 homes. As of 2007, 12,000 state renewable energy projects have been completed and state clean energy funds have invested over $4 billion, $1.5 billion in public funds and $2.5 billion in private capital.
Much of the activity to advance clean energy has taken place at the state level. The states have established special funds to promote clean energy technologies. CESA's State Leadership in Clean Energy Awards recognize state-level programs that accelerate adoption of clean energy technologies.
The panel of judges for the awards included: Glen Anderson (National Conference of State Legislatures); Hans Detweiler (American Wind Energy Association); Michael Northrop (Rockefeller Brothers Fund); Rhone Resch (Solar Energy Industries Association); Julie Rosenberg (EPA); Gil Sperling (U.S. Department of Energy); and Ryan Wiser (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory).