California is green power innovator

Sept. 1, 2006 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has closed a deal making it the first federal agency to purchase renewable energy equivalent to 100 percent of its annual electricity needs.

The green power purchasing program began in 1999, when EPA's Region 9 laboratory, in Richmond, Calif., became the first federal facility to purchase green power equal to its total annual electricity consumption. Since then, the program has steadily expanded to offset 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.

EPA worked closely with the Defense Energy Support Center on this latest green power procurement. The contract, which continues through Sept. 30, 2007, supports the development of wind farms in California, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

As the first federal agency to purchase 100 percent renewable energy, EPA continues to be an active partner in the agency's own Green Power Partnership, a voluntary public-private program that promotes renewable energy.