2017 Green Power Leadership Award Winners

We would like to congratulate the winners of the 2017 Green Power Leadership Awards (GPLAs). They received their awards at a ceremony on Monday, October 23, 2017 at the Renewable Energy Markets 2017 conference in New York, NY. You can read the release about the winners. You can also view the presentation and see the photos.

2017 Green Power Leadership Awards—Winner Video from Center for Resource Solutions on Vimeo.

2017 Green Power Leadership Awards: Winner Video from Center for Resource Solutions.

 

2017 CRS Market Development Award Winners

Center for Resource Solutions presented Market Development Awards to 10 winners in four award categories. These awards recognize individuals, companies, and other renewable energy industry leaders that have helped build the market for green power:

  • Green Power Market Development: A Better City, Google Inc., Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Rocky Mountain Power, and WGL Energy
  • International Green Power Market Development: Apple Inc.
  • Leadership in Green Power Education: Clif Bar & Company, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and RE-volv
  • Green Power Leader of the Year: Jan Pepper, Peninsula Clean Energy

 

EPA Green Power Partner Awards

EPA recognized 19 leading green power purchasers and suppliers in four categories: Excellence in Green Power Use, Direct Project Engagement, Green Power Community of the Year, and Green Power Partner of the Year. This year’s EPA Green Power Partner Award Winners are:

  • Excellence in Green Power Use: Capital One; Clif Bar & Company; Equinix, Inc.; Google Inc.; Microsoft Corporation; TOTO USA / Morrow, GA Facility; University of California; and University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Direct Project Engagement: Amphitheater Public Schools; Apple Inc.; Intel Corporation; Iron Mountain Information Management, LLC; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Stanford University; University of Missouri; and Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority
  • Green Power Community of the Year: Bainbridge Island, WA Community
  • Green Power Partner of the Year: City of Houston, TX and L’Oréal USA

View the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Awards page

 

2017 GPLA Winner Descriptions

CRS Market Development Awards: Green Power Market Development

A Better City
A Better City is a game-changing facilitator of renewable energy projects. The business-membership association developed a plan to aggregate the electricity demand of a consortium of its members—Including MIT and the Boston Medical Center—to enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA). This catalyzed a three-partner aggregation that resulted in the development of a new 60MW solar farm in North Carolina, lowering costs and providing renewable energy to previously excluded organizations. A Better City continues to champion renewable energy among its members and is currently working to replicate (and, hopefully, grow upon) this successful initiative among a new group of our members.

Google Inc.
Google is a multinational technology company based in Mountain View, California, that specializes in Internet-related services and products. Google states that its mission is to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful, while minimizing the environmental impact of its services. Google procures more than 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power for its operations, the majority of which is sourced through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with wind projects. In 2016, the company signed five additional long-term PPAs, bringing its total to 20 long-term PPAs amounting to 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar energy around the world. The company is on track to achieve its commitment to power all of its operations with green power in 2017.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, Pacific Gas & Electric delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. PG&E was the first major energy company in California, and among the first nationally, to partner with third party developers in creation of its community renewables program. Since launching its Solar Choice program in January 2016, PG&E has procured nearly 53 megawatts of new solar capacity from new small and mid-size projects within its service area of Northern and Central California. That’s enough to power nearly 40,000 homes. Additionally, customer enrollments have exceeded 15 megawatts of solar capacity, the highest single year’s megawatts enrollment of any similar program in the country.

Rocky Mountain Power
In 2016, Rocky Mountain Power launched an innovative community renewables solution called the Subscriber Solar Program to give Utah customers a low cost option for receiving solar energy. A 20 megawatt solar plant was built in central Utah – the largest single-dedicated-solar-resource for this type of program in the country at the time – and started generating on January 1, 2017. Now, there are more than 2,600 voluntary residential and commercial participants in the Subscriber Solar Program. Several municipalities also participate as part of their efforts to meet sustainability and renewable goals. The program sold out within six months, nearly two months before the solar plant was operating. The company has committed to adding more solar plants in the future to meet customer requests for solar.

WGL Energy
WGL Energy is growing the voluntary green power market by providing innovative renewable energy solutions. Through the Solar Energy Supply Agreement product, WGL Energy offers commercial customers an option to purchase the electricity output from a new solar array bundled with national solar renewable energy certificates. Notable projects include a new 3.5 MW project in Maryland that will supply power to National Geographic, as well as the Verizon Center in late 2017. In addition, WGL Energy provides both local and national wind power options to residential, government and commercial customers. In 2016, WGL Energy wind power sales reached over 1.6 million MWh, bringing cumulative wind sales to over 7.5 million MWh (confirmed in verification software). Additionally, through its Energy Management Platform, WGL Energy offers tools to help customers manage their energy usage and identify energy efficiency measures.

 

CRS Market Development Awards: International Green Power Market Development

Apple Inc.
Three years ago year Apple achieved its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy for their U.S. based facilities, and in the last two years the company has been aggressively developing generation overseas, including a 40-megawatt solar PV project in Sichuan, China and 32 megawatts of distributed rooftop solar PV in Singapore. These projects support Apple’s corporate and retail store energy use. Apple is also developing renewables for it’s supply chain energy use and as an initial step has contracted or brought online 485 megawatts of solar PV and wind generation in China. Apple is also leading efforts to establish certificate tracking systems in Singapore.

 

CRS Market Development Awards: Leadership in Green Power Education

Clif Bar & Company
For more than 15 years, Clif Bar has maintained a strong commitment to green power and climate action. In 2003, they began sourcing 100% green power for all Clif Bar owned and operated facilities and purchasing offsets to maintain climate neutral business operations. In 2010, Clif Bar installed a smart solar array (500 kW) at their Emeryville, California headquarters, which generates on average 80% of their onsite electricity needs. Finally, to drive green power into their supply chain, Clif Bar launched an innovative program called 50/50 by 2020 program with a goal of encouraging 50 key supply chain facilities to transition to 50% or more green power for the electricity used on Clif Bar’s behalf by 2020. To date, 25 supply chain facilities have reached or exceeded their 50/50 by 2020 goal resulting in over 9 million kilowatt hours of new green power purchases each year.

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
A botanical garden in Pittsburgh, PA, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has been connecting visitors to nature since 1893. As part of its commitment to environmental and human health, Phipps offsets 100% of all campus electricity not produced on-site through RECs, and offsets all heating emissions through carbon credits. In 2012, Phipps opened The Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). As one of the greenest buildings in the world, the CSL generates its own energy using solar and wind, and manages all water on site. Phipps’ SEED Classroom, opened in April 2015, is net-zero energy, and the forthcoming Exhibit Staging Center is designed for net-zero operation. Phipps developed the Make the Switch at Phipps! Green Power Drive, where Phipps hosts a green energy provider to help visitors make the switch immediately on-site. To date, more than 1,100 households have switched their electricity to fossil-free renewable energy through this program.

RE-volv
RE-volv empowers people to take meaningful action on climate change by crowdfunding solar energy projects for nonprofits around the country. Through RE-volv’s platform, lease payments from each project help fund future projects, creating a revolving fund that grows over time. RE-volv has crowdfunded solar projects for 10 community-serving organizations in California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Maine to date by raising over $350,000 from over 1,000 people (937, actually) from 38 states and 22 countries. Many of these projects are spearheaded by college students through a year-long fellowship program known as the Solar Ambassador Program. Over the course of a year, Ambassadors identify a local nonprofit and spearhead a crowdfunding campaign to pay the up-front costs of its solar energy installation. With over 80 students having gone through program, RE-volv is building a national network of clean energy stewards that spread the word about solar energy, making it more accessible in their communities.

 

CRS Market Development Awards: Green Power Leader of the Year

Jan Pepper, Peninsula Clean Energy
Jan Pepper has over 30 years of energy and utility experience, with a focus on renewable energy contracting and financing. She formerly worked at Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the municipal utility serving the City of Santa Clara and was the founder of four energy-related start-up companies, including APX and Clean Power Markets. At APX, she developed and pioneered the first use of renewable energy credits, which are now the standard currency for trading and tracking renewable power. At Clean Power Markets, her company designed and implemented the successful Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program for the State of New Jersey. Jan was elected to the city council of Los Altos in 2012 and served as Mayor from December 2014 to December 2015. She was re-elected in 2016 for a second four-year term. She served on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District from 2013 to February 2017.

 
Additional Information
For additional information on Center for Resource Solutions, visit www.resource-solutions.org.

For questions about the CRS Market Development Awards, contact Marcia Sitcoske at 415-561-2103 or marcia.sitcoske@resource-solutions.org.

 

Description

Electricity generated from renewable sources is becoming increasingly available nationwide. By choosing green power instead of conventional electricity, consumers, businesses, and organizations can support increased deployment of renewable energy technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of electricity generation and increase energy security.

To recognize the actions of individuals, companies and organizations that are significantly advancing the development of renewable electricity sources through green power markets, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) sponsored the 2017 Green Power Leadership Awards. The 2017 Green Power Leadership Awards were held on Monday, October 23, 2017 in conjunction with Renewable Energy Markets 2017.

 

No endorsement by the EPA is intended or implied.