The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) announced the 2014 Green Power Leadership Awards. The awards will be presented at the Renewable Energy Markets 2014 conference in Sacramento, CA. The EPA recognizes exceptional achievement among EPA Green Power partners and green power suppliers, and differentiates award categories between green power purchaser and supplier awards. The EPA recognized a total of twenty-three organizations. On the purchaser side, Apple, BD, Google, and Oklahoma State University were named Green Power Partners of the Year, and Medford, Oregon and Oak Ridge, Tennessee were named Green Power Communities of the Year. Also, the City of Las Vegas, Nevada and the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received awards for on-site generation, and Intel and Kohl's received awards for sustained excellence in green power again this year. On the supplier side, 3Degrees Group, Portland General Electric, Renewable Choice Energy, and Washington Gas Energy Services were named Green Power Suppliers of the Year. In addition, the 2014 Green Power Purchasing Award went to the City of Beaverton, Oregon; the City of Houston, Texas; Herman Miller; June Key Delta Community Center; Philadelphia Insurance Companies; REI; Steelcase; Town of Peterborough, New Hampshire, and Trek Bicycle Corporation. CRS recognized individuals, companies, and other renewable industry leaders through three awards. The Green Power Market Development award was given to Apple, Mary Sotos, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The Leadership in Green Power Education award was given to Puget Sound Energy, and the Green Power Leader of the Year was given to Robert Maddox. The IKEA Group made its largest renewable energy investment to date by purchasing a 165-MW wind farm from Apex Clean Energy in Cameron County, Texas. Together with the purchase of the 98-MW Hoopeston wind farm in Illinois earlier this year, IKEA's wind facilities in the United States are expected to generate nearly 1,000 GWh of electricity per year, estimated to be enough electricity to power around 90,000 American households year-round. IKEA now owns and operates 279 wind turbines in nine different countries (with 104 of these in the U.S.) and is planning to invest a total of $1.9 billion in wind and solar power by 2015. The Cameron County wind farm will be built and operated by Apex and it is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2015. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps housing units in the San Diego area will receive rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Lincoln Military Housing and SolarCity. The PPA will provide solar power to nearly 6,000 homes across 27 privatized neighborhoods and could potentially generate up to 20 megawatts (MW) of solar energy. It is estimated that the project will save the Navy at least $60 million over the 20-year term and the savings will be reinvested in the military housing communities. This plan is part of the Navy's aim of sourcing 1 gigawatt of energy via alternative sources by 2015 and getting at least 50 percent of its shore-based energy from renewables. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative have released a report ranking the top U.S. commercial solar customers by total installed solar capacity in megawatts (MW). In addition to aggregate solar capacity, the report provides information on the number of installations and the number of states in which solar systems are currently operating for each company. The top five U.S. commercial solar customers are Walmart (105.1 MW), Kohl's (50.2 MW), Costco (48.1 MW), Apple (40.7 MW), and IKEA (39.1 MW). Some commercial customers purchase solar renewable energy certificates (SREC) to meet electrical demand with renewable generation sources, but such transactions are not considered as part of this report's company rankings. Additionally, some companies discussed in this report, sell the SRECs generated by their solar systems to utilities or other buyers. McKees Solar Park, a 230-kilowatt solar farm, has begun providing Newark, Delaware's electric users with locally produced green energy. The 900-panel solar array was constructed on a 3.91-acre brownfield site and will produce enough electricity to power approximately 26 to 36 homes, depending on the season. In addition to an outright donation, residential electric users will have the opportunity to make a one-time investment of $50 in return for a $0.01 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) rebate on one 100-kWh block of power generated from McKees Solar Park per month. All usage will be billed at prevailing retail rates, less the $1.00 monthly rebate for the 100-kWh solar block. This investment option expires after ten years and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will offer a total of 130 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity in 2015 through a variety of power purchasing programs. The renewable energy capacity being added is consistent with TVA's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP programs will offer an additional 10 MW of new solar, wind or biomass for projects up to 50 kilowatts (kW), 20 MW available for solar technology from 51 kW to 1 MW, and 100 MW of available capacity to large wind, solar and biomass projects between 51 kW and 20 MW. The revised IRP is expected to be finished in late 2015. Currently, TVA has 217 MW of operating or committed solar projects under contract, 1,542 MW of wind and 64 MW of biomass from operating projects in its portfolio. The new plan will make the total amount of renewable energy TVA has offered or interconnected since 2011 to more than 500 MW. In collaboration with local utilities, the Army, and the Department of Energy, Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (RECC) will build a 5-megawatt (MW) solar array at Kentucky's Fort Campbell. Spread across 20 acres at the army base, the solar array is expected to produce approximately 6,651 megawatt-hours a year. The power is estimated to be sufficient to supply 463 homes, while avoiding 4,700 tons of CO2 emissions per year. RECC received a $3.1 million grant from the state and will add $1.9 million toward the project. Power purchase agreements with the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell will complete the financing. Pennyrile plans to have 1.9 MW completed by May 2015 and the rest by December 2015. Amazon's Seattle office buildings will recycle waste heat from a nearby data center in the Westin Building to warm its new Denny Triangle campus across the street. This recycling of heat is called a hydronic heat system. The system transfers the heat from the data center through water piped underground to the Amazon buildings and then returned to help cool the data center. Amazon estimates that the finished system will eliminate about 80 million kilowatt-hours of electricity use over 25 years. Cyanotech Corporation, producer of natural microalgae nutritional supplements, announced the installation of its new solar array by Neighborhood Power Company. The 2,280 panels are located on 1.3 acres of Cyanotech's 90-acre microalgae farm in Hawaii and will produce 1,147,000 kWh of electricity annually. Cyanotech will purchase the power under a power purchase agreement and the energy production is enough to power the entire farm during daylight hour. The array is expected to reduce the electricity costs by 10 percent and avoid 791 metric tons of carbon per year. Mt. Abram in Maine completed an 803-panel solar array capable of producing 280,000 kWh of electricity annually. The array is expected to generate enough power over the year to supply 46 average Maine homes and offset 70 percent of the ski area's power use. The solar project cost $940,000 and was funded in part by a 25 percent matching grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Energy for America Program. Payback from the power output and tax credits on this project is expected to be 4.5 years. |
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