CITY OF HOUSTON ADDS TO WIND ENERGY COMMITMENT

July 2, 2009 -- Mayor Bill White announced that beginning today (July 1st), 50 Megawatts or 32 percent of the City of Houston’s total electricity load will be purchased from wind energy, a milestone that demonstrates the City’s commitment to protecting the environment. This is up from a previous 27 percent.

“We begin taking this additional wind power today as a benefit for both today and the future,” said Mayor White. “As the energy capital of the world, Houston is committed to becoming the clean, sustainable energy capital of the world as well. Supporting clean sources of energy means helping put off the time when we’d all bear the cost of  adding expensive new power plants and  it also helps reduce harmful emissions.”

Houston is key in Texas’ ranking as the leading wind state in the nation. The EPA’s Green Power Partnership previously hailed the City of Houston as the No. 1 municipal purchaser of green power in the nation and as a crucial leader in the alternative energy trend. Houston recently passed the U.S. Air Force to become the nation’s leading purchaser of wind energy by a governmental entity.

Starting today, 32 percent of the City’s operations will be powered by wind energy from Texas wind farms, mainly located in West Texas. The City expects to use as much as 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of this renewable energy in the next four years, through 2013.  This is equivalent to the amount of kilowatt-hours needed to power 26,000 homes each year. It also helps reduce the need to build more expensive power plants for the region’s rising energy needs.

The City, designated by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of its Solar America Cities,  also is active in developing its own solar powered sources of energy. At the end of July, Mayor White will flip the switch on a new 100 kilowatt system that will be used to power a portion of the George R. Brown Convention Center. This new system will be in addition to the recently installed systems on the City’s Code Enforcement building (3300 Main), Discovery Green Park and the City Hall Annex building (900 Bagby).

Also, despite double-digit growth, the City has instituted energy conservation and energy efficiency measures that have enabled it to cut its total energy consumption by 6 percent over the past five years.