Leading Utility Green Power Programs

Green Power Programs

Pricing programs give consumers clean power choices

Under these voluntary programs, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as solar and wind. More than 800 utilities across the United States offer these programs.

Using information provided by utilities, NREL develops a Top 10 ranking of utility programs in the following categories:

• total sales of renewable energy to program participants
• total number of customer participants
• customer participation rate, green power sales as a percentage of
• total utility retail electricity sales
• the lowest price premium charged for a green power program using new renewable resources.

Green Power Program Leaders

Ranked by customer participation rates, the top utilities are

• City of Palo Alto (Calif.) Utilities
• Lenox (Iowa) Municipal Utilities
• Silicon Valley Power (Calif.)
• Portland General Electric
• Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

(For additional rankings, see the tables on the Greenpower Network Web site).

"Utility green power programs continue to expand across the country," said Lori Bird, senior energy analyst at NREL. "These utilities are the national leaders."

Customer Choice Programs

In 2007, total utility green power sales exceeded 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 20% increase over 2006. Approximately 600,000 customers are participating in utility customer choice programs nationwide.

Green Power Marketing Industry

Green Marketing Tips

NREL performs analyses of green power market trends and is funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.