Apr 29 2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named the City of Santa Clara a Green Power Community, making the City only one of 14 communities to receive such an honor. Santa Clara ranks as the second largest Green Power Community, both in terms of population and size of its green power commitment-57 million kilowatt-hours annually. Together, the 14 communities are protecting the environment by purchasing nearly 300 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually.
“Santa Clara is known for its concern for the environment, so it is wonderful to receive national recognition for our ongoing commitment to renewable energy,” says Patricia Mahan, Mayor for the City of Santa Clara. “This is a true community effort spearheaded by our municipal utility, and supported by the thousands of individual residents and businesses participating in the Santa Clara Green Power program.” Santa Clara Green Power is a voluntary renewable energy program offered by Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the City of Santa Clara’s municipal electric utility.
Power of Green
What makes the Green Power Community status of great importance is that these individual renewable energy purchases by thousands of Santa Clara residents and more than 130 businesses are above and beyond the standard utility electricity mix, creating more demand for clean energy. While SVP already has one of the cleanest and greenest power mixes in the nation, its Santa Clara Green Power program allows customers to match 100 percent of their energy use with renewables. The Santa Clara community has achieved its new Green Power status by purchasing energy credits that have surpassed benchmarks established by the EPA.
“EPA applauds our community partners for protecting our environment by purchasing green power,” says EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “By voluntarily shifting to renewable energy, the community of Santa Clara, California, is proving you don’t need to wait for a signal in order to go green.”
Committing to More Than One Million kWh of Renewable Energy
It is fitting that the City of Santa Clara’s municipal government is leading the charge as a green power champion. The City recently committed to more than a million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually for all municipal facilities-more than one-quarter of the output of one large-scale wind turbine.
“We are excited that our City has made an additional commitment to green power totaling more than one million kilowatt-hours,” says Larry Owens, Division Manager, Marketing and Customer Services for SVP. “The City of Santa Clara, along with the thousands of others buying Santa Clara Green Power, is a great indication of leadership by example.”
The City is not alone in its leadership; there are eight major institutions in Santa Clara currently purchasing green power at levels ranging from two million to eight million kWh annually: Agilent Technologies, Applied Materials, Santa Clara University, Yahoo!, Westfield Valley Fair, Terremark, National Semiconductor and Marriott Santa Clara.