The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cut a deal with 3 Phases Energy Services to purchase more than 100 million kilowatt hours (kWh) in renewable energy certificates, making it the first federal agency to purchase renewable energy equivalent to 100 percent of its annual electricity needs.
This green power purchase brings the total to nearly 300 million kwh per year which is equivalent to 100 percent of the EPA's nationwide electricity need annually. This maount can power 27,970 homes for a year.
The arrangement effective from Sept. 1 extends yearly green power purchases to more than 190 EPA facilities nationwide and supports the development of wind farms.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said that with this move they are committing to alternative, renewable power sources, and meeting the president's call to green our nation's energy.
In 1999, EPA's Region 9 laboratory, in Richmond, Calif., became the first federal facility to purchase green power equal to its total annual electricity consumption. This was the beginning of the green power purchasing program. Since then, the program has steadily expanded to reduce demand for conventional electricity sources by supporting such renewable energy sources as wind power, geothermal sources, and biomass - primarily through the purchase of renewable energy certificates, or RECs which help reduce emissions associated with conventional electricity sources.
On an annual basis, the EPA's total green power purchases manage to offset more than 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide - nearly the amount 54,000 cars emit during a year.
The EPA is an active partner in the agency's own Green Power Partnership, a voluntary public-private program that promotes renewable energy.
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