Lining Up to Buy Clean, Secure Wind Power

Lots of encouraging developments on the wind power front in recent days. Safeway, the grocery chain; Wells Fargo & Co., the banking firm; and Kettle Foods, the maker of natural potato chips, all announced plans to buy wind power.

Safeway will buy 174 million kilowatt-hours per year, Wells Fargo 550 million, and Kettle 8.75 million. Total? 732.75 million kWh annually, equivalent to the output of about 280 megawatts (MW) of wind generating capacity (there are currently about 10,000 MW installed nationwide and that number should jump to 12,000 by the end of this year).

Good to see members of the business community stepping up to play their part in supporting clean energy and slowing global warming.

Whoa! Looking at Google News, I see that New York University has just announced plans to purchase 118 million kWh of wind power annually.

Remember, you too can buy wind or other green electricity. For info on green power suppliers, see "Your Electric Choices" at www.green-e.org. This site includes a clickable map of the U.S. which will show you the choices in your state.

If you don't feel that you can afford to go 100% wind, a very inexpensive option is to buy 10% or 20%. For the average household, the cost will be 5-10 cents a day . . .

[Update 30 November 2006: The Port of Houston will buy 5% of its electricity from wind power for the next three years.]

[Update 7 October 2006: The Town of Frisco, Colorado, will go 100% wind, buying 1.4 million kWh of wind-generated electricity annually.]