Electric Co-op Today

Electric co-ops are helping make renewable energy more accessible to their consumer-members, responding to—and helping drive—the growing market for green power, a Department of Energy laboratory reported.

These Basin Electric Power Cooperative wind turbines in North Dakota help propel a nationally recognized green power program. (Photo By: Steve Crane)

The consumer-owned utilities sold more than 300 million kilowatt-hours of electricity through voluntary green power markets in 2008, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Renewable resources’ contributions to utility green pricing programs include wind for 71 percent of total sales; biomass, 17 percent; and hydro, 9 percent, the lab said.

Golden, Colo.-based NREL noted that several co-ops have received national recognition for their leadership in green power markets. They include Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck, N.D., which in 2007 ranked eighth nationally in total green power sales, with more than 226 gigawatt-hours. Basin Electric also ranked among the nation’s green power leaders in 2008, finishing seventh in price premium (0.80 cents per kilowatt-hour) charged for green power.

Also in the top 10 nationally in different categories were Park Electric Cooperative, Livingston, Mont., in the price premium charged for renewables, at 0.44 cents per kwh; and Holy Cross Energy, Glenwood Springs, Colo., in participation by consumer-members, 5.2 percent.

Tags: Green Energy, Renewable Energy