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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn Illinois, 91 Communities are now Powered 100% By Green Electricity
WASHINGTON, DC, March 7, 2014 – Illinois has embraced renewable electricity on a massive scale not seen anywhere else in the nation, says a new report, Leading from the Middle: How Illinois Communities Unleashed Renewable Energy. With 91 communities providing 100% renewable electricity to their residents, the state far outpaces any other, including Ohio, which has two cities providing 100% renewable electricity.
The report was released today by World Wildlife Fund, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, LEAN Energy US, the Illinois Solar Energy Association, Illinois Sierra Club, and The George Washington University Solar Institute.
“The findings of today’s report are an example of Illinois leading our country’s movement to a more sustainable future from the community level,” said Sen. Dick Durbin. “Communities up and down the state have banded together to pursue renewable electricity, reducing both their utility costs and the state’s environmental footprint. Illinois is showing what can happen when change at the local level is harnessed to create a collective movement, and I hope other states take notice.”
Each community in Illinois independently voted to purchase electricity through renewable energy credits, leveraging their group buying power to receive renewable electricity while also reducing overall electricity cost.
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http://www.juancole.com/2014/03/illinois-communities-electricity.html
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frazzled
(18,402 posts)We voted for it via referendum a while back. I don't think you can call it 100% green (powering a city of millions, that's probably going to be a long process), but it has gotten rid of coal-based electricity altogether, boosted its share of wind-generated electricity, relies for the rest on natural gas. Plus, it's supposed to save us money.
Through its municipal aggregation program, the city negotiated with electricity supplier Integrys Energy Services to increase the amount of wind energy it sends to Chicago homes and small businesses.
A report released Tuesday by the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Perfect Power Institute said Chicago’s electricity aggregation deal, including the new provision for local wind power, “achieve[s] substantial reductions” in air pollution. According to the report, electricity aggregation led to a 16 percent reduction in carbon emissions, a 98 percent reduction in ozone depleting and acid rain causing nitrogen oxide emissions, and a water-use savings equivalent to the annual consumption of about 12,500 households.
That report also said a previously underused natural gas power plant in Pennsylvania would ramp up production to meet the 95 percent of Chicago’s electricity demand not coming from Illinois wind. Chicago and the Marcus Hook power plant, located about 20 miles south of Philadelphia, are in the same region of the power grid overseen by PJM Interconnection, which stretches from New Jersey to North Carolina and also includes patches of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.
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Price was the defining feature of the deal. The city said replacing Exelon subsidiary Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) saved ratepayers an average of $150 per year on electricity bills, due to ComEd’s long-term contracts with more expensive energy suppliers.
But the aggregation deal also pushed the city’s power supply towards cleaner sources of energy. Chicago required its new energy supplier to rid the city’s fuel mix of coal, which previously provided about 43 percent of the roughly 5 million megawatt-hours of electricity the city consumes each year.
Chicago commands some attention in the market, so the city’s decision to specify the fuel mix could set a precedent.
http://www.wbez.org/news/city’s-power-deal-boosts-wind-energy-108003
