EPA Makes its Largest Green Power Purchase to Date

January 5, 2005

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in late December that as of November 1st, 2004, it began buying 100 million kilowatt-hours per year of green power for its facilities in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The three-year purchase of renewable energy credits will support the generation of renewable power from a biomass power plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia, to offset the electricity from non-renewable sources used by the EPA's facilities in the Triangle Park area. As a result of this and previous purchases, EPA's offices and laboratories are currently meeting 77.7 percent of their electricity needs from renewable energy through a combination of green power purchases and the purchase of renewable energy credits. See the EPA press release and the EPA's related Green Power Web page.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also looking to make a large green power purchase for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The agency is requesting bids for between 20 and 80 million kilowatt-hours of green power over a two-year period. The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) issued a request for proposals in early December, and bids are due on January 11th. See the DESC solicitation.

Certification of green power supplies went nationwide in mid-December, as the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) announced that it has established a default national certification standard to cover those areas for which a regional standard has not yet been developed. CRS began certifying green power through its Green-e program in California and gradually expanded the process to 32 other states, but that process left many gaps in the national map. See the CRS press release.