Participation in green power purchases exceeds 13%

GOLDEN, Colorado, US, March 22, 2006 (Refocus Weekly) A municipal utility in California has 13.6% of its customers purchasing green power, after only two years of offering the product.

The city of Palo Alto Utilities launched ‘Palo Alto Green’ in 2003 and is rated top in the U.S. for participation rate of utilities with green power programs, according to the latest annual ranking from the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Under the voluntary programs, consumers can support additional generation of electricity from solar, wind and other green power sources.

More than 600 utilities across the U.S. offer these programs, says NREL.

Lenox Municipal Utilities in Iowa reports 12.6% participation, while third-place Montezuma Municipal Light & Power of Iowa had 6.3%. Holy Cross Energy in Colorado had 6% and Sacramento Municipal Utility District of California had 5.5%. The balance of the top ten are Portland General Electric (5.3%), City of Fairbank (4.9%), Silicon Valley Power (4.8%), Moorhead Public Service (4.7%) and Central Electric Cooperative reported a participation rate of 4.6% by the end of last year.

“Utility green power sales continue to show strong growth across the country,” says Lori Bird of NREL. “These utilities are the national leaders.”

Customer choice programs are providing a powerful stimulus for growth of green power facilities. Last year, total sales of renewables by utilities reached 2.7 billion kWh, an increase of 36% over 2004. NREL estimates that 430,000 customers are participating in utility programs across the country, up 20% from 2004.

NREL attributes the success of many programs to persistence in marketing and creative marketing strategies, including utility partnerships with independent green power marketers. The rate premium for green power has dropped as fossil fuel prices have increased, and “higher prices for conventional energy sources are focusing greater consumer attention on renewable energy options,” adds Blair Swezey of NREL.

Austin Energy of Texas has the largest utility green power program in the country, selling 435 million kWh a year of output from windfarms and landfill gas facilities, followed by Portland General Electric with 339 m-kWh from existing geothermal
and hydro sites as well as wind. PacifiCorp sells 234 m-kWh of wind, biomass and solar, while Florida Power & Light sold 224 m-kWh of biomass, wind and solar last year. Sacramento Municipal Utility District was in fifth place with 195 m-kWh of wind, landfill gas, small hydro and solar, Xcel Energy with 148 m-kWh of wind, National Grid with 128 m-kWh of biomass, wind, small hydro and solar, Basin Electric Power Coop with 114 m-kWh of wind, Puget Sound Energy with 71 m-kWh of wind, solar and biogas, with OG&E Electric Services in tenth spot with 2005 sales of 64 million kWh of wind power.

When ranked on total number of customer participants, Xcel Energy is highest with 49,354, PacifiCorp with 42,269, Portland GE with 40,570, SMUD with 31,229, LADWP with 24,380, FPL with 23,066, PECO with 22,164, National Grid with 20,986, Puget Sound Energy with 15,500, We Energies with 12,458 and Alliant Energy with 12,426 participants.


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