The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the communities of Washington, D.C. and Brookeville, Md. as winners of the first Green Power Community Challenge. The year-long challenge encouraged communities across the nation to voluntarily increase their use of green power generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. By using green power, communities help to reduce their carbon footprint, improve public health, and advance the market for renewable energy.
“The Green Power Community Challenge proved that any community, no matter its size, can harness the collective power of its businesses and residents to achieve real environmental results,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy. “By switching to renewable energy, EPA’s Green Power Communities are investing in a more secure, healthy, and prosperous future.”
Washington, D.C. surpassed all other challenge participants to win the competition title for the most amount of green power used annually. District of Columbia businesses, residents, and the District Government are collectively using more than 772 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, enough to meet 8 percent of the community’s total electricity use.
Brookeville, Md., is the challenge winner for the highest green power percentage of total electricity use. Forty-five percent of Brookeville’s local government, residential, and business electricity usage comes from green power sources.
EPA launched the challenge in September 2010 with a goal for its participating communities, across 14 states and the District of Columbia, to reach a green power usage of 1.8 billion kWh annually. Today, EPA’s Green Power Communities surpassed the goal and are using more than 3.3 billion kWh, equal to preventing the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from the electricity use of more than 284,000 homes.
EPA Green Power Communities are cities, towns, and villages where the local government, businesses, and residents collectively committed to buying green power in amounts that meet or exceed EPA’s Green Power Community purchase requirements. Green Power Communities are members of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, a program working with more than 1,300 partner organizations to voluntarily use green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use.
More information on the Green Power Community Challenge and results: http://epa.gov/greenpower/communities/gpcchallenge.htm
