Agency Reports Green Power Commitments Up by 1.5-B kWh
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 Green Power Partners increased their voluntary green power commitments by more than 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2009, while 300 new organizations joined the Green Power Partnership.
Overall, the 1,200 partners are buying nearly 18 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions from electricity use of more than 1.6 million average American homes.
“EPA’s Green Power Partners are raising the bar for clean, renewable energy use,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation,. “By using green power, they’re doing their part to fight climate change and proving every day that sound environmental practices can also be economically sound.”
Among the top 10 partners, Intel Corporation remains the partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power, increasing its commitment over the previous year to more than 1.4 billion kWh. Kohl’s Department Stores increased its green power purchase by more than 1 billion kWh in 2009, becoming the second-largest purchaser within the partnership. PepsiCo, Whole Foods Market, the City of Houston, Dell Inc, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Johnson & Johnson round out the top 10 purchasers. All together, these 10 leaders are buying more than 7.3 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity use of more than 680,000 average American homes.
EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,200 organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. Green power electricity generates less pollution than conventional power and produces no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The green power purchases support the development of new, renewable generation resources nationwide.