The Green Power Market Development Group was launched in mid- 2000 to jump start the green power market by member company purchases of renewable energy. The group was organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Business for Social Responsibility with the goal of creating 1,000 megawatts of new cost-competitive green power for corporate markets by 2010. So far, the group is responsible for 15 megawatts of green power generation — enough to supply 11,000 homes. Members include Alcoa Inc, Cargill Dow LLC, Delphi Corporation, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, Kinkos, and Pitney Bowes.
Since January 2001, four member companies have implemented or signed contracts for new green power projects:
General Motors started using local landfill gas to power factories in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this February and has signed contracts for plants in Shreveport, Louisiana and Michigan. The landfill gas will provide the Indiana facility about 5 megawatts of electricity generating capacity a year.
IBM facilities in Minnesota and Texas purchase over 5.4 million kWh of electricity from wind per 
year. IBM has a 5-year agreement to buy green power for its Austin, Texas manufacturing and development facility. It buys 5.25 million kWh per year of energy from the King Mountain wind farm in west Texas. A Rochester, Minnesota manufacturing and development facility buys 171,000 kWh per year of wind energy from Rochester Public Utilities.
Johnson & Johnson has installed solar photovoltaic systems totaling nearly 350 kilowatts on the rooftops of three buildings: a 200 kW system at its Neutrogena facility in Los Angeles; a 75 kW array at its PSGA facility in Pennsylvania; and a 72 kW system at its Cordis facility in Warren, New Jersey.
80 Kinkos retail stores nationwide purchase green power products including wind, landfill gas, geothermal, green tags, and landfill gas mixed with small hydroelectric power. The company is the largest green power purchaser in Oregon.
Starting this month, five Kinkos branches in Oregon will meet 100 percent of their power requirements from a blend of 85 percent geothermal and 15 percent wind, using 1.2 million kWh of green power a year. Four up-state New York stores purchased green tags, supplying 113,000 kWh of electricity from a local wind farm. Six Austin, Texas stores buy all their electricity – 1.77 million kWh per year – from wind.
The Green Power Market Development Group believes the following policies are needed to accelerate growth and investment in green power:
* Tax incentives: In addition to continuing tax incentives for producing clean energy, incentives for new investments would help overcome the relatively high initial cost of green power projects.
* Emissions markets: The further development of a single, efficient emissions reporting system and a robust credit trading market would help meet our countrys clean air goals and address climate change concerns.
* Public-private partnerships: Green power research and technology commercialization should be accelerated through expanded public-private partnerships and government green power purchases.
www.thegreenpowergroup.org
http://www.wri.org
http://www.bsr.org
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