About 10 years ago, utility companies began offering customers the option of getting some of their electricity from wind, solar and biomass.
In 2009, green energy sales by 850 utilities reached 6 billion kilowatt- hours — enough for about 7.5 million homes, according to an annual survey by the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Consumers often pay extra for green power, but between 2000 and 2009, that premium was cut in half to 1.75 cents per kilowatt hour, the NREL report said.
“The trend has been for growing sales,” said Lori Bird, an NREL analyst. “Even during a horrible economy, the market was up.”
While not topping the charts, Xcel Energy, Colorado’s biggest power provider, was in the top 10 in total renewable electricity sold, number of customers and lowest charges of renewables.
“Ten years ago it was strong residential support, but now we are seeing more response in the commercial sector and from big businesses,” said Steve Mudd, project manager for Xcel’s Windsource.
Here are NREL’s top-ranked utilities:
Total green energy sales
1. Austin Energy
2. Portland General Electric
3. Sacramento Municipal Utility
4. Xcel Energy
The key to Austin’s top performance is its ability to offer locked-in prices for wind energy, said Karl Rábago, the Texas utility’s vice president for distributed energy.
Customers who locked in to Austin’s first wind-power sale are paying 1.7 cents a kilowatt- hour compared with the current fuel-based charge of 3.65 cents.
Austin sells 84 percent of its green energy to commercial customers.
“Businesses like the cost savings and at the same time doing something for the environment,” Rábago said.
Total green energy customers
1. Portland General Electric
2. Pacific Corp.
3. Xcel Energy
4. Sacramento Municipal Utility
Since their inception in 2000, Portland General’s Green Source and Clean Wind programs have had strong customer interest — even though it adds a premium to the monthly bill, said Thor Hinckley, the manager of renewable programs.
About 9 percent of Portland General’s 815,000 customers participate in renewable, Hinckley said.
Green Source, which provides 100 percent renewable energy, adds about $9 a month to a household bill. Clean Wind adds about $3.50.
“As we entered 2009, I was very concerned whether people would still be willing to pay a premium, but people stayed with it,” Hinckley said.
Green sales as a percentage of total electricity sales
1. Waterloo Utilities
21.4 percent
2. Edmond Electric, Edmond, Okla. 8.1 percent 3. Portland General Electric 7.9 percent
4. City of Palo Alto Utilities 6.9 percentWaterloo Utilities serves 1,800 customers in Waterloo, Wis. It is, however, one customer, the Trek Bicycle Corp., that made it the winner.
“Trek has three facilities in town, and they wanted to use 100 percent renewable power,” said Greg Hoffman, an energy services representative for the utility. “That’s what made the difference.”
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
