There aren’t many places where renewable energy is as popular as it is here in Oregon.
A new study ranks utilities by how many renewable energy customers they have, and by how much renewable energy they sell. Oregon’s two big utilities, PGE and Pacific Power, rank high in every single category.
It means that many Oregonians are willing to spend a few extra dollars a month to make sure the electricity coming to their homes and businesses are from renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass.
Here’s how we rank, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:
Total number of renewable energy customers:
- PGE is #1 with more than 72,000 customers as of December 2009.
- Pacfic Power is second with just over 71,000.
Participation Rates:
- PGE is #2 with more than 10% of its customers in the renewable energy program.
- Pacific Power comes in seventh with a 6.5% participation rate.
- First place belongs to the City of Palo Alto, CA. More than 20% of customers buy green energy.
Total Sales:
- PGE ranks #2 for selling almost 741,000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy in 2009.
- Pacific Power comes in third with sales of more than 578,000 kilowatts a year.
The Pacific Power numbers are little bit screwy because in some categories they include customers in other states, and in some categories they only include Oregon customers.
