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[E3 wise]

Ithaca Goes 100% Renewable
From: Environmental Leader- Environmental and Energy Management News -12/30/2011
http://www.environme...-100-renewable/

     The City of Ithaca, N.Y., is to purchase 100 percent of its electricity consumption from renewable energy sources through a contract signed with Integrys Energy Services of New York Inc.

  Beginning in January 2012, the city will be purchasing Green-e Energy-certified renewable energy certificates for all its electricity. These RECs will offset about 4,896 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually from conventional electricity production. The environmental benefit can be compared to not driving 12,000,000 miles in a car, or planting 1,460 acres of trees, according to the municipality.

  The REC purchase was conducted through Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance Inc., a non-profit power aggregation alliance of which Ithaca is a member. MEGA uses its collective bargaining power to leverage competitive energy prices for its members.

  Ithaca has sourced 5 percent of its energy from wind farms since 2006 and is targeting a carbon footprint 20 percent smaller than 2001 levels by 2016, and it is not the only U.S. municipality to go 100 percent renewable.

  In October, the City of Austin, Texas, announced it was to power all of its facilities using only renewable energy. The move catapulted the Texan capital into the U.S.’s top ten renewable energy buyers.
Shared by E3Wise

[mariaandrea]

I love hearing news like this. I'm fortunate to live where I do, where here in Seattle:

Quote

Because 90 percent of City Light's power resources are from clean, renewable hydroelectric power, in 2005 the utility became the first - and remains the only - electric utility in the U.S. to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

source: http://www.seattle.g...t/tours/skagit/

Seattle City Light's Fuel Mix

Each year, Seattle City Light updates its “fuel mix” -- the types of resources used to supply power throughout the year. Here's the breakdown for 2010:
Fuel Mix Generation Type Percentage Hydro 87.9% Nuclear 6.4% Coal 2.5% Wind 2.1% Others* 1.1%
* Includes natural gas, biomass, waste, petroleum, landfill gases and other.
http://www.seattle.g...r/greenuppr.asp

Sorry to hijack this, I'm just happy to see more efforts everywhere and kind of proud of my city. Of course I'll be even prouder when it's 100% renewables.

[E3 wise]

No your not hijacking, this thread would be a great place to discuss differant ways utilities are using alternative energy to meet their needs.  Thanks for the responce.

[MakingCents]

This is pretty cool that cities are shifting to 'greener' sources of energy and even better yet that they are going to re-newable energy.  Once these cities 'go green'  hopefully bigger cities will follow suit.

[still learning]

I don't know.
Is buying CO2 offsets the same thing as actually buying renewable electricity?

Apparently the City of Ithaca is buying offsets from Integys http://www.integryse...ons-carbon.aspx
Includes energy efficiency projects as offsets.
Somehow, sort of seems like an accounting trick.  Which Intregys is apparently good at, see the criticism section here http://en.wikipedia....ys_Energy_Group  (paid no taxes some years while making substantial profit)

[jasserEnv]

The trick to CO2 offsets is in the regulation and as the world of CO2 offsets is a new industry, I personally suspect that some companies could be getting away with less than scrupulous practices in working in this new space. However, if they are operating legitimately, these CO2 offset companies are essentially like Groupon in that they get enough contributors together in order to make a deal that few members could make on their own. These deals can include clean energy generation, restoration of deforested areas, etc.

That aside, it is good to see the small cities raising the bar and essentially pushing the bigger cities to take action. I can only dream of something progressive like that at this point as one of our city representatives helped defeat an anti-idling bylaw saying law makers had "no right to interfere in a person's God given right to idle"...

[zararina]

Yes it was good news and a good start for shifting to green energy resources.
It an inspire more and more areas or cities to choose renewable and other green enrgy sources specially if it will become more cheaper compared to non green energy sources available.