The National Renewable Energy Lab just came up with a few “Top 10” lists highlighting utilities that offer voluntary program for their customers to pay more for renewable power.
Austin Energy in Texas snagged the No. 1 spot for the selling the most renewable power in 2008. The utility sold nearly 724 million kilowatt hours from renewable power plants that had a total average production capacity of 82.6 megawatts, according to an NREL report.
Excel Energy in Colorado took the No. 1 spot for attracting the highest number of ratepayers to its program. The utility’s program, called Windsource Renewable Energy Trust, had roughly 71,570 participants in 2008.
The City of Palo Alto Utilities in California, on the other hand, won the top spot for a list ranking customer participation rates. Twenty-one percent of the utility’s customer took part in its Palo Alto Green program.
Edmond Electric in Oklahoma topped the list for sales of renewable power as a percentage of the total electricity sales. The amount of wind power sold through the utility Pure & Simple program made up 6.4 percent of its total power sales.
More than 850 utilities in the country offer renewable power purchase programs, which attract consumers who are willing to pay extra on their monthly bills to support green electricity generation. This way, the utilities could keep the rates low for those who don’t want to pay for green power, which costs more to generate than conventional power.
Through those programs, the utilities sold more than 5 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity in 2008, a 20 percent jump from 2007, NREL said. Most of the green power came from wind farms.
Of course, utilities don’t guarantee that they send only renewable power those program participants, since the renewable electricity is mixed with conventional power in the grid.
Some utilities opt for other types of programs that help consumers feel good about their energy use. The Pacific Gas and Electric in California, for example, has a voluntary program, Climate Smart, for its customers to pay about $5 per month to fund greenhouse-gas reduction projects picked by the utility. Some of the money right now goes to a the nonprofit, The Conservation Fund, for managing a forest in Northern California.
You can see the full Top 10 lists at the NREL Website.
