Dec 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Banks Albach Palo Alto Daily News, Calif.

With one in five residents now participating in Palo Alto Green, the city is leading the country in an ongoing effort to pipe in clean energy from solar and wind sources throughout the state.

Lenox Municipal Utilities in Iowa is the closest district to Palo Alto, with 16.6 percent of customers participating, while the national average for American cities with similar programs is 1.8 percent. Palo Alto saw a 5 percent increase in 2007.

"We continue to be number one in the nation," said outgoing Council Member Bern Beecham. "We've worked hard to make it work."

Under the plan, which was launched about six years ago, residents can volunteer to pay an extra 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour on their utility bill. In turn, the city buys clean energy, 97.5 percent of which comes from wind farms in Davis, San Ramon, Pleasanton and Solano County.

The city's utility department purchases about 41.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, the equivalent of preventing nearly 700 million pounds of climate-changing carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

With four new faces joining the council in 2008, Council Member John Barton said he hopes to increase enrollment in Palo Alto Green.

"I think we need to keep pushing it, especially given our complex goals with global warming," Barton said.

The utilities department is already planning to pursue another 5 percent increase in 2008, said Joyce Kinnear, manager of utility marketing services.

Participation increases during the past few years, she said, have come thanks to a major outreach campaign, ranging from community events to utility bill inserts, administered by Three Degrees, a firm the city hired in 2003.

For more information about the program, or to sign up, visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/forms/pagreenenrollment/ .

E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.