U.S. Businesses Increasingly Rely on Renewable Energy Sources

Houston was among the Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 U.S. entities using electricity from clean, renewable sources like wind and solar.

Washington — U.S. businesses and educational institutions continue their push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing use of renewable energy sources.

On April 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Green Power Partnership updated its list of the top 100 organizations that are choosing to use electricity from clean, renewable sources like wind and solar power.

“By using green power, these companies and organizations are showing that business can flourish while taking meaningful steps to reduce carbon pollution,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Making cleaner choices to power our communities, institutions and businesses reduces the pollution that contributes to climate change, protects America's health and environment, and supports continued growth in the green power sector."

Intel Corporation continued its seven-year run as the United States’ largest voluntary user of green power, meeting 100 percent of its electricity load with renewable resources.

Other technology companies in EPA’s top 10 include Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc. and Apple Inc. Apple increased its annual green power use by nearly 100 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), moving from Number 11 to Number 8 on the list.

In total, the combined green power use of these top 100 partners amounts to nearly 24 billion kWh annually, which represents close to 83 percent of the green power commitments made by all participants in the program. The list is calculated based on annual green power use (in kilowatt-hours).

The top 10 partners on the list are Intel Corporation, Kohl’s Department Stores, Microsoft Corporation, Whole Foods Market, Google Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Staples, Apple Inc., the city of Houston and the U.S. Department of Energy.

In addition, for the eighth year in a row, EPA is encouraging increased green power use among higher education institutions through the College and University Green Power Challenge.

Of the 33 competing conferences, the Big 10 is the 2014 conference champion, collectively using more than 309 million kWh of green power annually and avoiding carbon pollution equal to that produced by the electricity use of more than 30,000 American homes.

During this academic year, the Big 10 includes the University of Illinois, University of Indiana, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin.

The University of Pennsylvania continues to be the top individual school in the challenge for the seventh year in a row, purchasing more than 200 million kWh of wind power annually — more green power than any of the 78 other competing schools.

EPA also recently announced that, in support of President Obama's Climate Action Plan, the Green Power Partnership is launching the On-site Renewables Challenge, with a goal to double the use of on-site green power by partners by the end of the decade. As part of the challenge, EPA invites partners to increase the amount of energy they produce and use from on-site renewables by the end of the decade.

Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents the renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.

As part of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership, more than 1,200 organizations are purchasing more than 28 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, avoiding an amount of carbon pollution equal to that created by the electricity use of more than 2.4 million American homes.

The partnership provides quarterly updated lists of partners using green power in the following categories: retail, technology and telecommunications, local government, and K-12 schools, among others.