Honorable Mentions
Monday, February 28, 2011
There are many local and government programs designed to reward the efforts by cities and private industries to reduce their energy consumption while utilizing—and encouraging continued investment in—renewable energy technologies. For example, late last year, the EPA released a list of its list of the top 50 organizations it identified as using the most renewable electricity. Called “The Green Power Partnership,” the top purchasers on the list use more than 12 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than one million average American homes. And they’re generating green power from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, and low-impact hydropower.
The Partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power is the Intel Corporation, honored with the 2010 EPA Green Power Leadership Award. The company uses more than 1.4 billion kWh annually, equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 125,000 average American homes. Other honors went to Kohl’s Department Stores and Whole Foods Market, which came in second and third, respectively. Starbucks made the list for the first time, taking the fourth spot, after having more than doubled its annual green power purchase to more than 573 million kWh of green power. The fifth spot goes to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which increased its green power purchase to 500 million kWh of green power annually. Rounding out the top 10: the city of Houston, TX; Dell Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; the US Air Force; and the City of Dallas, TX.
In late 2010, the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) announced seven state clean State Leadership in Clean Energy (SLICE) Awards to programs and projects that demonstrate leadership, effectiveness, and innovation in clean energy.
Honored for effective and innovative approaches to deploying clean energy are: California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program/Advanced Energy Recovery System, California Energy Commission’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Community Scale Wind Initiative, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy Program’s Local Government Energy Audit, Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund’s Renewable Energy Kit for Remote Telecom Equipment, Energy Trust of Oregon’s Solarize Portland, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s Feed-In-Tariff Program.
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