The federal agency recently completed its largest green power transaction to date. Under the three-year agreement, Unicoi Energy Services of Marietta, Ga., will use biomass power — paper pulp — to supply EPA’s Research Triangle Park facilities in North Carolina with 100 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy certificates annually. The amount is equivalent to the energy consumed by 3,680 homes yearly.
Currently, EPA annually purchases more than 220 million kwh of green power for 26 of its facilities, laboratories and offices, across the nation
Green power is electric power derived from renewable resources such as wind, sun, and biomass (including burning of wood waste, plant materials and landfill gas). Green power sources have lower emissions than more conventional generating plants, and generally have less adverse impact on the environment.
White House Executive Order 13123 (titled "Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management"), encourages all federal agencies to expand the use of Green Power by developing renewable energy projects, supporting the development of renewable projects by others on federal land and purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources.
The order also requires that federal agencies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent from 1990 levels by 2010. EPA purchases green power through a process utilizing RECs (green tags), which are both cheaper and easier to procure than delivered power.
