U.S. government increases use of renewables 14-fold

WASHINGTON, DC, US, November 9, 2005 (Refocus Weekly)

The U.S. government has increased its use of green power by 14-fold over the past six years.

The Department of Energy says the federal administration is consuming 2,375 GWh a year of electricity from renewables, compared with 173 GWh in 1999. At that time, Executive Order 13123 required federal agencies to increase their use of renewables and the secretary of energy set a goal of sourcing 2.5% from renewables by September 2005.

The EO included solar, wind, biomass and geothermal systems installed after 1990; hydropower was not included in the definition of renewable energy sources for federal facilities. When the federal goal was implemented in June 2000, it represented a target of 1,355 GWh of electricity and, at that time, agencies were obtaining 13% from renewables. By March 2003, consumption had increased to 663 GWh, and the target was raised to 1,384 GWh to reflect increases in federal use of electricity.

The current consumption of 2,375 GWh is sufficient to supply 225,000 homes, or a city the size of El Paso in Texas for one year.

“Particularly in light of tight oil and gas supplies caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it is important that all Americans, including the federal government, increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable fuels,” says energy secretary Samuel Bodman. “Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass are increasingly becoming viable options for American homes and buildings.”

The Federal Energy Management Program at DOE was directed to help federal agencies to meet the overall goal by purchasing green power or installing green heat systems at individual sites. Among the facilities quoted by FEMP are the 127 kW rooftop solar system at the U.S. Postal Service Marina facility in California, 675 kW of large wind turbines at the Navy base on San Clemente Island off California, 225 kW of wind turbines at the Air Force base on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, a 5 MW cogeneration facility that uses wood waste at the Army’s Fort Stewart base in Georgia, 366 rooftop solar water-heating systems at the Navy's Moanalua Terrace housing complex in Hawaii which displace the emission of 622 tons of CO2 each year, a PV array
and two small wind turbines at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Alaska near the Arctic circle, and the installation of 4,000 earth energy heat pumps at Fort Polk in Louisiana which saves the Army $3 million a year in energy costs.

“Meeting federal goals for renewable energy use will help to conserve our natural resources and increase the nation’s energy security,” says FEMP. “Abundant energy from the sun, the wind, plants and the earth itself - renewable energy - can provide some or all of your federal facility’s needs for heating, cooling and electricity.”

FEMP provides agencies with information, guidance and assistance in using renewable energy, which reduces the need for imported fuels and enhances energy security. “Renewable energy also helps to conserve the nation’s natural resources, and it has almost no adverse effect on the environment.”

“Several different technologies make use of those renewable resources; at least one is appropriate for almost any federal facility in the world,” it explains. The Executive Order also called for 20,000 federal solar roofs by 2010, as one of the country’s Million Solar Roofs goals.

The recently-approved Energy Policy Act set a goal for the federal government to obtain 7.5% of its electrical power from renewables by 2013. In September, president George Bush directed DOE to report within 30 days on current energy efficiency efforts by the federal government.


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