WASHINGTON , DC, US:
The 25 largest purchasers of renewable electricity in the United States
account for 8.8 billion kWh of green power a year.
The latest ranking by the ‘Green Power Partners’ puts Intel at the top of
list, with an annual purchase of 1,302,040,000 kWh of green power a year
from biomass, geothermal, solar and wind facilities. The purchase represents
46% of the total electricity consumption of the computer chip manufacturer.
Second-place PepsiCo purchases 1,105,045,154 kWh, but this offsets 100% of
its power consumption for the year. The U.S. Air Force is in third place
with 899,143,000 kWh, representing 9% of its power consumption; the green
power is sourced from ten suppliers, including Bonneville Power
Administration and Sterling Planet.
Other purchasers in the top ten are Wells Fargo (550,000,000 kWh - 42% of
total power); Whole Foods Market (509,104,786 - 100%); Pepsi Bottling Group
(457,851,838 - 100%); Johnson & Johnson (400,702,978 - 39%); Cisco Systems
(373,500,000 - 51%); City of Dallas, Texas (333,659,840 - 40%) and HSBC
North America (300,000,000 - 93%).
The balance of the top 25 purchases are U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, City of Houston, Texas, Kohl's Department Stores, Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts, Starbucks, DuPont, U.S. Department of Energy,
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PepsiAmericas, Vail Resorts, New York
University, NatureWorks, Staples, The World Bank Group and the University of
Pennsylvania.
Combined, these top 25 largest purchases amount to 8.8 billion kWh a year,
which represents 60% of the green power commitments made by all EPA Green
Power Partners. The Partnership works with a wide variety of leading
organizations which purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts
of electricity generation and to support development of new green power
capacity in the U.S.
Purchase amounts reflect U.S. operations only and are sourced from
U.S.-based green power resources. Organizations can meet EPA purchase
requirements by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, generating green
power on-site or purchasing green power products from a local utility.
For the two cities in Texas, Dallas buys 40% of its power from wind turbines
while Houston uses wind for 20% of its electricity needs.
"Texas leads the nation in wind power production, and Dallas and Houston are
leading the way in showing other cities how green power can help protect the
environment," says EPA regional administrator Richard Greene. "By shifting
to wind and other renewable power sources, cities can cut GHG emissions and
change the way we generate energy."
EPA's Green Power Partnership works with 850 partner organizations to buy
green power voluntarily. Overall, Partners buy 13 billion kWh a year.
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