On the Change Corps website we try to suggest small changes you can make in your life everyday that can have big results, so it's so refreshing to see the City of Houston stepping up and making a change that benefits not only its citizens but all of the planet's citizens as well.
On July 1, 2009, Mayor Bill White announced that 32% of the City of Houston's total electricity load will be purchased entirely from wind energy! This is a 5% increase in use of wind energy. Below is a portion of a news release about this big step for an environmentally conscious Houston!
“We begin taking this additional wind power today as a benefit for both today and the future,” said Mayor White. “As the energy capital of the world, Houston is committed to becoming the clean, sustainable energy capital of the world as well. Supporting clean sources of energy means helping put off the time when we’d all bear the cost of adding expensive new power plants and it also helps reduce harmful emissions.”
Houston is key in Texas’ ranking as the leading wind state in the nation. The EPA’s Green Power Partnership previously hailed the City of Houston as the No. 1 municipal purchaser of green power in the nation and as a crucial leader in the alternative energy trend.
Houston recently passed the U.S. Air Force to become the nation’s leading purchaser of wind energy by a governmental entity.
Starting today, 32 percent of the City’s operations will be powered by wind energy from Texas wind farms, mainly located in West Texas. The City expects to use as much as 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of this renewable energy in the next four years, through 2013. This is equivalent to the amount of kilowatt-hours needed to power 26,000 homes each year. It also helps reduce the need to build more expensive power plants for the region’s rising energy needs.
The City, designated by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of its Solar America Cities, also is active in developing its own solar powered sources of energy. At the end of July, Mayor White will flip the switch on a new 100 kilowatt system that will be used to power a portion of the George R. Brown Convention Center. This new system will be in addition to the recently installed systems on the City’s Code Enforcement building (3300 Main), Discovery Green Park and the City Hall Annex building (900 Bagby).
Also, despite double-digit growth, the City has instituted energy conservation and energy efficiency measures that have enabled it to cut its total energy consumption by 6 percent over the past five years.
•
del.icio.us
digg
facebook
E-mail this article to a friend (requires login).
|
OPML |
Search This Site |
Home