The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released its annual ranking of leading utility green power programs.
More than 600 utilities across the U.S. now offer customers the option of supporting electricity production from renewable resources.
In 2006, utility green power sales exceeded 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 30% increase over 2005. More than 500,000 customers are participating in utility programs nationwide, up more than 10% from 2005.
Using information provided by utilities, NREL develops Top 10 rankings of utility programs in the following categories: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, customer participation rate and the lowest price premium charged for a green pricing service using new renewable resources.
Ranked by renewable energy sales, the green power program of Austin (Texas) Energy is first in the nation, followed by Portland General Electric, Florida Power & Light, PacifiCorp and Xcel Energy.
Ranked by customer participation rates, the top utilities are City of Palo Alto (Calif.) Utilities, Lenox (Iowa) Municipal Utilities, Montezuma (Iowa) Municipal Light & Power, Portland General Electric, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. (See attached tables for additional rankings).
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